Nairobi — Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, Dr. Deborah Mlongo Barasa, delivered the collective stance of the Africa Group of Negotiators during a pivotal ministerial briefing at the COP30 conference here.
The Cabinet Secretary's remarks solidified the continent's dual position: a deep commitment to climate action, contingent upon significant financial and technological support from the developed world.
CS Barasa emphasized that Africa is ready to assume a leadership role in the global climate response. "We are deepening our engagement as a country and steadfastly committed to ensuring that Africa is a leading milestone in climate change globally," she said.
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The consultative dialogue focused on the core purpose of the convention, with Dr. Barasa stressing the "reaffirmation of the implementation of the Convention" and underscoring that "COP30 must address the challenges of climate and sustainable development." She presented the conference as a crucial moment for global accountability, noting that it is an "opportunity to reaffirm responsibility and demonstrate that collective action can deliver meaningful results for the people and the planet."
The discussions highlighted that Africa will "continue in the implementation of the Convention and its guidance to the Paris Agreement," while simultaneously stressing the continent's "special needs and special circumstances."
The Climate Change and Environment chief made a direct call for meaningful engagement from the world's richer nations: "We need developed countries to engage meaningfully, COP 30 should deliver a comprehensive and balanced operational guidance on all provisions of the Paris Agreement and address mitigation, adaptation, finance, and the means of implementation gap."
A central point of her statement was the conditional nature of African climate pledges. The Cabinet Secretary noted that African countries' Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement "are mostly conditional on the provision of adequate and urgent support." She consequently called on developed countries "to mobilise, provide and make accessible all necessary means that will allow immediate and concrete implementation of African countries' commitments, particularly climate finance and technology."
The Cabinet Secretary also ensured that the meeting's outcome aligned with previous regional policy decisions, stating that decisions by the African Ministers on Environment and Natural Resources (AMEN) "stress the importance of reflecting previous decisions of the COP and CMP under the Paris Agreement."
Concluding her remarks with a challenge to international partners, she declared: "Africa is ready to play its part, and we call on our partners to do the same.
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