Au Forum world of sustainable development, the continent denounces the polluting countries
The XNUMXth Forum sustainable development campaign devoted to Climate change ended this Sunday in Ouagadougou, the Burkinabè capital. The Ouagadougou Declaration, to which this forum, will be the reference document for African States at the Copenhagen Conference in December.
Rising temperatures, droughts, floods, diseases ... Africa is paying the high price for global warming while it is the least polluting continent. An unequal equation which has more and more difficulty to pass in the African diplomatic circles where one observes a hardening of the positions.
Africa claims $ 65 billion in compensation
"As Africans, we are not going to spend our time lamenting the phenomenon of climate change", had warned the Burkinabè Minister of the Environment and the living environment, Salifou Savadogo, at the opening of the Forum last Friday. A call for the counter-offensive widely heard by African leaders who traveled to Ougadougou this Sunday. The President of the Commission of the African Union, Jean Ping, has thus set foot in the dish by demanding of industrialized polluting countries "repairs and compensation" financial. Two days earlier, the President of Forum, Minister Salifou Savadogo, started the ball rolling by quantifying the amount of these compensation at 65 billion dollars (44 billion euros).
The demands for demands tending to remind the countries of the North of their commitments also poured in. At the end of forum, the joint African declaration, Ouagadougou Declaration, thus states the decision of African countries to "support the reduction of greenhouse gases by 40% by 2020 compared to 1990 levels, for industrialized countries".
"Managers must commit to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and to meet the" polluter pays "principle," said Mr. Ping. A position unanimously shared by the heads of state of Benin, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, the Congo, Mali, and Togo, as well as by some of the 4000 experts gathered. "The big polluters must participate in the task with more means, more determination and more capacity to reduce greenhouse gases", concluded the Host President, Blaise Compaoré.
Africa will speak with one voice in Copenhagen
Expected at the turn, the African countries did not disappoint with the expectations linked to the adoption of a common position to be held in Copenhagen. In this sense, the Ouagadougou Declaration born this Sunday should serve as a reference document for Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré, appointed Representative of Africa by his peers at the International Conference in Copenhagen which will begin on December 7.
However, this capital meeting may not be a piece of cake for Africans. The proposals for financial compensation have already aroused strong international reactions, such as that of the former President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac, present this Sunday in Ouagadougou, and "resolutely against the idea of global compensation where Africa would be compensated for no longer touching its forests ”. The talks therefore promise to be bitter and difficult. We can nevertheless bet that the consensus reached by the Forum of Ouagadougou bears at least some fruits ...
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