COP23: Africa relies on Morocco to convey climate change grievances (African Official)

Bonn 13/11/2017 (MAP) – Africa relies on Morocco to convey to the Fijian Presidency of the COP23 the continent’s grievances on combating the effects of climate change, speaker of the Pan-African parliament, Roger Nkodo Dang, said here on Monday.

The Kingdom is well aware of Africa’s climate problems, Nkodo Dang told MAP on the sidelines of the 23rd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP23) which is held in Bonn.

Morocco will push the Fijian presidency of the COP23 to take into account the concerns of the continent, he added, welcoming, in this regard, the work done by the Moroccan presidency at the COP 22 in Marrakech.

Nkodo Dang also recalled the convening in Morocco in last October of the African parliamentary consultation meeting on climate and sustainable development, which culminated with the adoption of the “Rabat Declaration” which sets out the common position of the African countries on this topic, noting that a copy of this declaration was submitted at the Bonn meeting to the President of the COP 22 Salaheddine Mezouar to hand it down to the Fijian Presidency of this conference.

It should be noted that in the “Rabat Declaration”, African parliaments call for the injection of funds to implement targeted initiatives and reduce the effects of climate changes on African peoples.

The Paris Agreement, which was adopted by the 196 Parties to the UNFCCC in December 2015 in the French capital after which it is named, calls on countries to combat climate change by limiting the rise of global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius and strive not to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius.

At the Bonn Conference, countries will seek to move forward in completing the rule book for operationalizing the Paris Agreement.