Nairobi — The major consensus reached at the just ended African Parliamentarians Summit on Climate Change was that the continent be compensated for the developed world's role in global warming.
Kenya has actually settled on an annual demand note of about Sh1.6 billion which it plans to table in December at the global climate meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark.
There is talk of trillions that should be payable to Africa as a form of reparations by the main polluters, the developed countries.
However, there is no clear formula on how the figures are calculated. On this alone, the proposal may not get very far.
But even then, there are no guarantees that such monies will be forthcoming soon as the 20 major economies have not made concrete proposals for funding poorer to nations tackle climate change.
This is a clear warning against putting hopes on such funding. African countries must design and implement local solutions to climate change.
Though climate change is a global phenomenon requiring coordinated solutions, there are many things individual countries can do without waiting for western funding. These include aggressive efforts at forest conservation. Big forest cover could be used as collateral for raising money through carbon credit transfer programmes.
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Right track! What Africa can and must do can only be done with African labor. Little of it is very hi-tech.
1) Stop exporting oil and gas. Use what you need locally, and leave the rest for the future. This is where a large hunk of the GHG is coming from. And the export revenue gotten dominates your economies and so damages them. Any compensatory money you are given will do the same: more economic harm than good.
2) Repair your waterways. Many are clogged with weeds and silt. You can make the weeds into biofuels and use the silt to repair damaged soil.
3) Go solar, wind and geothermal as much as you reasonably can. Strive to be the last nations to run out of oil.
4) Increase reforestation efforts. Some of that gas you are selling can be used to displace charcoal, and save trees. So can the biomass harvested while clearing your waters.
5) Build the capacity to cope with agricultural surpluses, then generate them and store them for the future. When they exhaust their shelf life, make biofuels from them. Promote gardening and rainwater harvesting.