Opening remarks by Dr. Fatima Denton at CCDA-III, 21-23 October 2013

Honourable Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Vice President Ali Abou Sabaa of the African Development Bank, Dr Carlos Lopes, Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Her Excellency Mary Robinson, His Excellency Mr Festus Mogae, Honourable Terezya Luoga Huvisha, Minister of State of Environment of the United Republic of Tanzania, Honourable Saviour Kasukuwere, Minister of Environment, Water and Climate of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Honourable Mass Axi Gai, Minister of Fisheries and Water Resources of The Gambia, Dear Partners and Friends of Africa, Distinguished delegates, Ladies and gentlemen, all protocols observed.

It is my pleasure to welcome you all to the 3^rd Conference of the ClimDev-Africa Programme taking place between 21^st and 23^rd of October here in the beautiful and historic capital of Addis Ababa. The theme of this year’s conference is: Africa on the rise: can the opportunities from climate change spring the continent to transformative development?

Distinguished guests, climate change has been described as the single biggest threat facing humanity. How do we define threat and what does this mean for vulnerable groups in Africa?

How do we understand the struggle that fishers in Cape Verde, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gambia and Senegal face as climate change continues to pose multiple risks to fisheries? Their struggles include higher sea levels, more intense and more frequent storms that threaten port and fishing infrastructure, a changing variety of fish species, and more acid waters that can inhibit crustacean shell formation and deny them  valuable livelihoods.

What other choices can we afford smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe and other parts of Southern Africa, where poor soil fertility is a leading cause of hunger and food insecurity? Communities that are dependent on natural resources are increasingly held to ransom due to declining soil fertility that is now exacerbated by climate change. They are forced to think out of the box and experiment with researchers’ adaptation options that promise to deliver high maize yields on sandy soils.

How do we increase the quality of decision making for farmers and pastoralists in East Africa who have to make critical management decisions based on available climate data, and are hampered by lack of access to science-based forecasts and unable to take advantage of the full range of crop and livestock management options that could help reduce rainfall-related risks?

What prospects can we offer vulnerable communities in the Greater Horn of Africa, farmers and pastoralists who are heavily reliant on rain-fed agriculture, and have been exposed to successive droughts resulting in severe food shortage and humanitarian crisis in 2011?

How can we help Egyptian farmers who are experiencing considerable hardship as salt is leaching into rich soils and invading drinking water wells? How do we respond to families whose homes are continuously eroded from below while hundreds of square miles of land have been inundated as sea level continues to rise?

Much closer to home, here in Ethiopia, what fresh hopes can we bring to Ethiopian farmers when rising temperatures and increasingly variable rainfall continue to have devastating impacts on agricultural productivity in a country where 85% of the population depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, and agriculture accounts for 47% of Ethiopia’s gross national product and more than 80% of exports? Indeed, between 1997 and 2007, Ethiopia lost on average $1.1 billion to drought every year.

Finally, how do we explain to the children of Sahelian farmers and livestock herders that a 25% decrease in rainfall in the past 30 years is part of the legacy that we will hand over to them?

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, in the midst of the debate on the Conference of the Parties held annually within the context of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the lives and futures of these people are often forgotten, ignored as the discussions focus on semantics, markets, rights, technologies, institutions and who is entitled to what part of the atmospheric space. The principles of enlightened self-interest and common but differentiated responsibilities call for a shared vision, one that allows us to manage climate change impacts for the benefit of humanity and for the sustainable growth of Africa and the world’s children.

Your Excellencies, we are all awakening to Africa’s meteoric rise and our institutions are working to ensure that we can continue to achieve sustained economic growth that will ripple through critical sectors in Africa and provide opportunities for our people, our youth and women who collectively remain the single largest untapped potential that the continent has.

Africa is rising, but this growth will be short lived if we do not manage the impacts of climate change. The opportunity for harnessing the vast natural resources that we dispose of will be squandered if benefits accruing from minerals and the extractive industries are not used to stimulate growth in agriculture and pave the way to industrialisation using smart innovations and cleaner technologies. We will close the window of opportunity if the vast wealth of energy that we have is not used as a foundation to green our economies. We will be punching above our weight if the strength of the political will of our leaders is not commensurate with our investment in low-carbon climate resilient economies that will keep us on the pathway to green growth and environmental sustainability. 

Ladies and gentlemen, the clear vision of our leaders and their resolve to blunt the impacts of climate change as demonstrated in the establishment of the ClimDev programme, which was endorsed at the highest political level by Heads of States, Ministers of Economic Planning and Environment, will become a mere footnote in the history books if we fail in our fight against climate change.

Your Excellencies, this conference is not about failure, nor is it about philosophizing on missed opportunities. It is about looking at climate change as an investment opportunity, and in that sense it is a “how” conference not a “why” conference.

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, this is the time for Africa. We are poised on a hopeful pathway, a transformative development agenda. Climate change can increase the opportunity space for Africa to invest in renewable energy technologies, turn agriculture into a booming industry, build human and institutional capacities towards a knowledge economy that supports innovation, research and development; invest in climate services in ways that will leverage the potential of hydro-meteorological services so they can act as a credible resource for farmers and a range of people dependent on natural resource assets; use the collective voice of our 54 countries to make finance flow, and ensure that our call for new and additional funds are aligned to our national priorities, systems and institutions.

Your Excellencies, we are on a countdown to Warsaw where we will open discussions as part of the 19^th Conference of the Parties, and here we will discuss climate change in all its forms. We are also not far from the final publications of the IPCC’s 5^th assessment reports.  The space for Africa to resolve its problems is dwindling, and the pace of the negotiations is costing Africa’s farmers, pastoralists, fishers their opportunity for a reasonable chance of arriving at stable sustainable livelihoods. CCDA gives us a unique opportunity to elongate the policy space, to share experiences through practical solutions, to learn and to broaden the debate and to reinforce the need for action now for Africa’s sustained growth.

Climate change is part of our reality, it defies our boundaries, it presents new challenges that mock our current institutions, it robs our people of their single biggest entitlement – their right to manage their natural resource for their benefit and that of their families; it challenges our knowledge and our deeply entrenched assumptions; it stifles the entrepreneurship of our youth and vulnerable groups and it reduces our opportunity space.

In the next three days, as we engage in debates on climate finance, on our space and contribution at the international arena, on prospects that the green economy offers to take advantage of our enormous energy and mineral endowment, we will be defying the impacts of climate change by focusing on the opportunities that we can seize.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Africa is indeed on the rise, and our rise against the negative impacts of climate change will be even more formidable if we act now, and if we act with the resolve and vision of our leaders, civil society, vulnerable groups and friends and partners of Africa in saying that: together we will! Our collective journey in finding solutions has already started, but as we travel together in this collective ecosystem, let’s ponder the words of a famous writer who said: “One of the main points about travelling is to develop in us a feeling of solidarity, of that oneness without which no better world is possible.’ Thank you.