Civil society organisations (CSOs) have petitioned France and Egypt to advocate for climate change issues in favour of African countries at the Conference of the Parties 21 (COP 21) scheduled for Paris, France later this year.
The petitions were yesterday handed over to the Egyptian Embassy in Malawi and the European Union (EU) office after which both offices are expected to deliver to Egyptian president and French Embassy in Zimbabwe respectively.
The CSOs, who are part of CSOs working on climate change and food security in Africa, are lobbying for climate change adaptation and resilience as opposed to climate change cooperation.
Reads the letter to the French Embassy in part: “To date, adaptation has been left on the sidelines despite considerable risks climate change pose to the global economy, peace and security. We need a climate deal not just a mitigation deal. The Paris agreement must put in place processes for the international community to cooperate on adaptation and climate change resilience.”
The main points the CSOs are advocating for are adaptation and that developed countries should deliver on $100 billion per year commitment by 2020.
The French Embassy petition was received by EU delegation’s political officer in the country, James Dolan, who promised to have the document scanned and e-mailed to Zimbabwe.
Dolan said that the petition has pertinent issues which must be pursued by affected countries to the end.
Before the petition was delivered to Dolan, Paramount Chief Kyungu, who is brand ambassador on Food and Climate Change, read it out to all who were present in the EU offices board room.
Both petitions have been signed by the Catholic Development Commission, Right to Food Platform, Civil Society Network on Climate Change, Civil Society Agriculture Network, Oxfam in Malawi and Coalition of Women Farmers (Cowfa).
Cowfa chairperson Ellen Matupi said that there is greater need for the upcoming climate change meeting to discuss and adopt issues in relation to women farmers and climate change because most of farm work is done by women.
According to Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma), between 1974 and 2003 hazards cumulatively affected 25 million people making the country one of the worst affected amongst the developing countries based on mean annual number of affected 100 000.
