COP27: Tell critical climate change stories, African journalists told
Mohamed Adow, Director of Power Shift Africa, a climate think-tank based in Nairobi addresses journalists during the Pre-COP27 Africa Media Conference for African Environment journalists in Kigali City, Rwanda on September 21, 2022.
As Egypt prepares to host the 27th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 27), African journalists have been challenged to tell the real African story.
The conference, which will run from November 6 to November 18, will be attended by global leaders.
COP27 will be held on African soil for the second time after COP22 in Marrakech, Morocco. The event will revolve around increasing climate finance in efforts to adapt to the consequences of climate change and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
Despite contributing relatively little to global greenhouse gas emissions, Africa is among the hardest hit as climate change exacerbates food insecurity, water scarcity, and extreme heat, among other problems, and experts warn that they lack the resources to adapt on their own.
Mr Mohamed Adow, a climate justice Advocate, said: "In slightly over a month, the UN Climate Change conference will take place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. COP27 is described as Africa's COP and will significantly shape our future and therefore there is a need for African journalists to expose the scandal of climate injustice."
Global emissions
The Director Power Shift Africa said that Africa, which is home to 17 per cent of the global population, accounts for about 4 per cent of the global emissions.
"In historical terms, the 17 per cent of the global population that resides in Africa only accounts for only 0.5 per cent. When you factor that this is what 17 percent of the global population contributes you realise the scale of injustice," said Mr Adow.
Mr Adow observed that there has never been a real effort to tell the African climate stories as most of the dailies in the continent don't tell such stories.
"If you open our dailies, there are not many stories that tell the African climate stories apart from stories about the shortage of rains and drought affecting the whole of Africa and cyclones hitting the southern part of the continent," he added.
He continued: "The thing is we're lacking a discussion of the root cause of climate change in a way that we can be able to provide a clear compelling argument that mobilises our political leadership for them to exercise the urgency to address the problems."
"It's not enough to say rainfall is failing in Northern Kenya or the Horn of Africa and that people are suffering. As journalists, you need to go further and tell people why the incidences of drought are increasing and becoming severe in that part of Kenya and that way you will be playing a key role in exposing the root cause of the scandal our people are facing."
However, he said all is not lost and there is hope if journalists and all stakeholders exercise their urgency to tell the African story clearly and compellingly and shift the discourse
"If you look at international institutions and international dialogue on climate change is still being dominated by the wealthy minority that has caused the climate problem and this set up means Africa will continue to lose and perhaps that is why the dilemma that this continent faces has been summed up as the most vulnerable and least responsible but sadly we are the least informed," said Mr Adow.
Vulnerable
He said it is sad the continent had failed to expose the scandals of climate injustice and challenge the structures and institutions that continue to perpetuate it.
"All we have been told is that because we are vulnerable we would be provided with food aid when drought hit us and we are happy to settle for that which is why when there is a drought or floods our leaders are happy to make international appeals."
He said the best practical way to uproot this injustice and help shift the trajectory is for African experts, advocates, civil societies, legal negotiators and other stakeholders to provide a knowledge base.
The chief executive officer of Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture (MESHA) Daniel Aghan said that African science journalists must continue to make noise and write compelling and impactful stories about climate change on the continent.
"COP27 in Egypt is a great opportunity for science journalists in Africa to tell stories of change and expose the climate change stories impacting the lives of millions of people in the continent," said Mr Aghan.
