Africa will push for a solution-oriented fight for climate change. This according to Kenya’s president William Ruto guarantees the continent results and not victimhood in the global space.
Speaking in Midrand, South Africa on Wednesday, Ruto said this perspective will summon the world to live, produce and consume in harmony with nature.
Addressing the Pan African Parliament Climate Summit on Climate Policy and Equity the Kenyan leader said the continent has for far too long been neglected, while it bears the largest brunt of climate change.
“We have the largest green energy potential. We are saying we have the assets, come with your technologies, we meet half way and we find the solutions. We want to be part of the solution. Do not consign us to the problem,” noted President Ruto.
Ruto who also chairs the Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC) noted that Africa has the potential to remove 300 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.
This he told the parliamentarians could be done through what he termed as nature-based solutions including landscape restoration, reforestation and mangrove forest protection among others.
The Midrand meeting was organized in partnership with the Pan-African Alliance for Climate Justice (PACJA). It aimed at gathering the continent’s legislators, civil societies and governments to share ideas and explore ways of tackling Africa’s immediate climate change needs.
“We want to make Africa a clean and green factory of the world. If Africa is indeed the young, green continent of the future and the locus of the next industrial revolution, African solutions are no longer restricted to Africa’s problems, they also address humanity’s problems effectively,” added the President who was the keynote speaker at the two-day meet.