African countries entered the recent COP28 negotiations on climate change in high spirits. Before this conference, in September, African government leaders, policymakers, activists and other groups from the continent met at the African Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. The African position and expectations for COP28 were shaped at this summit by the adoption of the Nairobi Declaration.
Africa’s main agenda at COP28, hosted by the United Arab Emirates, was to convince global players that they must show more altruism in financially supporting targets to reduce global emissions. For African countries, COP27, hosted by Egypt, was largely deemed a failure for the continent, and they hoped that COP28 would be more successful.
Africa is the region that has been most affected by climate change since 2010, even though the continent is one of the lowest greenhouse gas emitting regions in the world. More than half of the African population faces one or more impacts of climate change. These include drought, rising temperatures, land degradation, flooding, coastal erosion, desertification, and changes in rainfall patterns. This makes it especially important to analyse what gains Africa made at COP28 as a negotiating bloc.
