The recent past saw Africa's commitment to a common stand in the forthcoming UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen (COP15). In Addis Ababa, African ministers agreed on $67 billion per annum.
Subsequently, at the 7th World Forum on Sustainable Development in Burkina Faso, the AU Commission Chairman, Jean Ping said: "Policy makers have to agree to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and adhere to the Polluter Pays Principle", the figure was revised to $65 billion.
More recently, at the inter-ministerial committee's meeting held in Abuja, the figure was increased several-fold. The Director of Finance in the Climate Change Unit of the Federal Ministry of Environment, Mr Peter Tarfa, proposed an annual contribution between $200b and $400b as financial reparation for damages as a result of many years of carbon emission.
Barely a month to Copenhagen, are compensation proposals genuine? How do our representatives come up with such figures? Will Africans get value for the $400b? Suppose the polluter agreed to pay. What next?
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Mindful of Ronald Mayinja's words, echoed in his song, Africa Bagitunda (Africa on sale) - Mayinja starts the song auctioning and dividing Africa into countries and concludes by asking God's intervention against the corrupt - the following might provoke your reactions.
In most African countries, national emblems originate in natural world - the Crowned Crane and Uganda Kob, in case of Uganda. On the African scale, the coastal forests of Eastern Africa, Guinean forests of West Africa, The Horn of Afric and Eastern Afromontane hotspots are home to multitudes of endemic biodiversity.
Additionally, there is that intrinsic value I attach to being an African, a Ugandan and a Mukiga- a sense of belonging and identity. In addition, the invaluable contribution to this feeling of belonging I derive from family members who show me ancestral burial grounds; bushes where medicinal herbs are preserved, tribal and community forests; and a sigh of relief I derive on ascending to Kabale town and the view of the misty-top of Mt. Muhavula.
Similarly, the same feelings will apply to a Mutoro, viewing or knowing that snow-white ice cap on Rwenzori Mountain exists; to a Muhima, that cows are happily grazing, multiplying and lactating; to a Muganda, that barkcloths are made from a fig tree; to a Mugisu, that Black and White Colobus monkeys' skins are dressed during imbalu ceremony (circumcision ritual) and Mt. Elgon Forest Reserve is home to the monkeys.
Although threatened by climate change, assigning an economic value to Africa's identity, culture and nationality, might require a complex equation.
Therefore, the proposed climate change compensation might warrant slow extinction to Africans through giving a leeway to polluters - the western world. This, coupled with Africa's 'cancer' of corruption, the impact of compensation money might never be felt on the ground. There is need to determine the level to which emissions should be abated and polluters held responsible. Other than valuing how much Africans are willing to accept, let polluters value how much they are willing to pay as climate change compensation, and then, the two parties start negotiations.
Mr Bakamwesiga is secretary, Ecological Society for Eastern Africa
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