THE Africa Climate Justice Group (ACJG) has held the first ever African People’s Counter COP days ahead of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Conference of Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland.
ACJG Coordinator, Maimoni Ubrei Joe said: “For 26 years, the voices of communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis in Africa have been shut out and blocked at every turn of the climate negotiations by corporations and rich governments.
“These vested interests have undermined real solutions that address the core causes of climate change and have instead put forward a host of false solutions, all part of their green washing efforts. The Counter COP presents an opportunity for the voices of the people of Africa to finally be heard.”
Held from October 25 to 27, 2021, the virtual event took place just days ahead of the official Conference of Parties (COP26) in Glasgow and the outcomes are targeted at African negotiators and African governments at the climate negotiations.
ACJG is a group of African civil society organizations, movements of women, peasant communities, African citizens that are fighting for climate justice, and standing in solidarity with the people of the world, especially those in the front lines of the impacts of the climate crisis.
The ACJG coordinator told Nigerian Tribune that “The main reasons for the counter COP are for Africans to share stories and experience, knowledge and wisdom of the impacts of the climate crisis in the region and responses to it, resistance to extractivism and false solutions, and resilience.
“The counter COP is also to create an avenue for solidarity building with impacted people and to unite the struggles of African movements and civil society groups against the root causes of climate change including capitalism, racism, neo colonialism and patriarchy.”
On the final day of the Counter COP, the African Peoples’ Agreement (APA) on Climate was adopted.
Ubrei-Joe noted that: “The APA is a document put together by Africans based on the resolutions from several organised sessions around climate change that will deliver concrete proposals for a just transition and alternative development pathway that restores the rights of nature, and that is in harmony with nature and among human beings.”
“The Agreement will be shared with the African Union, especially the African Group of Negotiators to the UNFCCC COP 26, African Heads of State, and other African institutions. The Agreement will also be sent to the media for wider public awareness.”
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