The United Nations is fighting for climate justice

This week in Nairobi United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres closed a key gathering of civil society representatives in the lead up to this year's Summit of the Future with an important overview of what the climate crisis means for the continent of Africa.

Here is an excerpt of what he told them:

I am delighted by the diverse participation at this conference, including many young people and representatives from African countries. ??

Their contribution is vital.

Because our world is facing multiple crises.

And Africa is suffering – disproportionately.?

This continent is being blasted by extreme weather, turbocharged by a climate crisis it has done next to nothing to create: from lethal floods in the East, to deadly droughts in the South.

Africa could be a renewables giant. ?

It is home to thirty percent of the minerals critical to renewables, and sixty percent of the world’s best solar resources. ??

Yet, in this unfair world, in recent decades, it received just two percent of the investments in?renewables.?

And too often, countries and communities with critical energy transition minerals are exploited, and relegated to the bottom of the value chain. Others take the profits somewhere else.?

The United Nations is fighting for climate justice.

Our new Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals – co-chaired by Ambassador Nozipho Joyce Mxakato-Diseko of South Africa – will develop voluntary principles to ensure developing countries receive maximum benefit.

We are calling for developed countries to honour their promises on climate finance – including funding to help countries prepare for the worst of climate chaos;

For significant contributions to the new Loss and Damage Fund;

For action to reform the multilateral development banks so that finance flows to climate action;

And for the G20 to lead efforts to slash emissions and accelerate a just global phase-out of fossil fuels.

I ask African leaders to support these efforts.

And I urge all governments to create ambitious new national climate plans by next year.

Plans that drive sustainable development, attract investment, and align with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the worst of climate chaos. ?

Africa’s fate rests on meeting that limit.

See also:

• UNEP's work on climate action
• Act now, speak up: what individuals can do to address the climate emergency