African countries will speak with one voice at Copenhagen climate summit: AU chief

OUAGADOUGOU, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson Jean Ping declared on Sunday in Ouagadougou that African countries had decided to adopt a common position and to speak in one voice during the UN climate summit scheduled for December in Copenhagen.

Jean Ping made this declaration during the 7th world forum on sustainable development, held as from Oct. 9 to 11 in Ouagadougou under the theme "Climate Change: challenges and opportunities for sustainable development."

While insisting that the problem of climate change will from now on be pursued by Africa as a developmental problem and be an integral part in the economic growth, Jean Ping pointed out that for the first time, a common African position on climate change was elaborated taking into account the specificities and the continental priorities.

"Africa has decided to speak with only one voice and has appointed a team of negotiators with expertise to negotiate on her behalf in Copenhagen," the AU chief explained.

According to him, this common position for Africans is aimed at getting the engagement of those responsible for global warming, especially the industrialized countries, to reduce the gas emissions and respond to the principle of polluters pay. This position was also to help the African continent to adapt herself to climate change.

Jean Ping also regretted that Africa is the least prepared continent to tackle the challenges of climate change because it does not have the required means to confront the consequences of environmental degradation and her ecosystem which is already fragile.

"The African heads of state and governments of the African Union came up, in the last two years, with evidence of an injustice which has neither been corrected to date or repaired and which is that, for a continent with only 3.5 percent of the gas emissions, Africa is paradoxically the most vulnerable, experiencing the most serious consequences of climate change: drought, floods and soil erosion," he noted.