Lagos — A group called The Africa Group whose spokes person is Ethiopian leader Meles Zenawi has made a demand for N30bn to be granted African countries to tackle environmental damages caused by climate change. According to the plan, the start up funding will span three years from 2010 to 2012 with yearly release of $10billion.

Mr. Menawi quite responsibly, as if reading the lips of his global audience, advised that the funding should be put in a trust fund to be administered by a group of trustees composed of equal number of donor and recipient countries. On long term financing, he proposed that this should start by 2013 to reach up to $50bn per annum by 2015 and $100bn per annum by 2020.

From the tone of the Ethiopian leader's address, African countries expect the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change to open a flood gate of economic opportunities in terms of aid to finance their environmental ravages of floods and green gas emission.

In essence, the tap of aid which has hitherto been dry given the unfulfilled promises of G20 countries will now be plumbed to flow freely after the Copenhagen Climate Conference. This therefore means that African leaders need to be reminded of what Copenhagen Climate Conference was all about and be told in clear terms that relying on foreign aid and carrying the begging bowl at international summits, lower their human dignity and do not make for sustainable economic growth in developing countries especially in Africa.

The Copenhagen summit was about commitment from nations of the world and their leaders to the fact that the world was getting warmer and there was grave danger to its future. Scientists were able to prove that it should not get warmer than 2 degrees Celsius. To achieve this, countries gave a commitment to cut back their emissions.

According to experts from The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology "At the very heart of global warming were basic rules of physics which tell us that as levels of green house gases increase they interact with the global energy balance of the planet so as to make it warmer".

It then went on to conclude that this last decade has been the hottest in the last 160 years and warned that if the warming continues "it would have serious repercussions not the least affecting food and water security for many regions of the world". Needless to say, the Darfur crisis is one that bears all the indices of the consequences of global warming as it is a battle fuelled by shortage of water and grazing rights between farmers in Southern Sudan and herdsmen from the north.

That aside, the UN played a leading role in alerting the world on the danger of global warming-from the 1992 Rio Earth summit to Kyoto and the Copenhagen conference. That a consensus or agreement was not signed shows that when the chips are down, it is the world powers that call the shots and not the UN.

For selfish reasons, the two leading global economies US and China only promised but did not sign any agreement in Copenhagen. Both countries are responsible for 40 per cent of global carbon emissions. The US share of global emission is 19.9 per cent while that of China is 21.9 per cent.

The US promised to cut its emission by 17 per cent of its 2005 levels by 2020 whilst China promised to cut its own by 40 - 45 per cent in 2020 compared with 2005 levels.

Yet China gets 70 per cent of its energy from coal.

So how can it, in all reality, make such a huge cut and sustain its roller coaster economic growth which is making it the major power of the next decade? Copenhagen has clearly shown that political and economic considerations bestride and override even climate change and global warming dangers.

Whilst holding the developed counties and the G2 responsible for global emissions, African leaders should learn from the show of power that almost marred the summit.

At the end of the day, the G2 countries, US and China, joined by Brazil, India and South Africa prepared the final document and working mandate for the Copenhagen Climate Conference. African leaders should watch the direction of global governance and politics. India, Brazil and South Africa did not go to Copenhagen to ask for global aid.

Their presidents and PM joined Chinese leader Wen and US President Obama to direct the mission of the world in facing the dangers of climate change. India and Brazil have already formed an economic geo-political bloc called IBSA to help developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The IBSA countries should be a shining example for the Africa Group.

African leaders should look inward for honest, committed and thoughtful leadership and not seek to greedily make a meal of all things including even climate change.