Makamu
wa Rais wa Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania, Dkt. Mohammed Gharib Bilal,
akihutubia wakati akifungua rasmi Kongamano la Afrika kuhusu
Makubaliano ya Rasimu mpya ya Dunia inayohusu Usimamizi wa Masuala ya
Tabianchi. Kongamano hilo lilianza jana Sept 3, 2015 kwenye Ukumbi wa
Mikutano wa Kimataifa wa Mwalimu Nyerere jijini Dar esSalaam.
Baadhi ya Washiriki wa Kongamano hilo wakimsikiliza Makamu wa Rais Dkt. Bilal, wakati akihutubia.
Makamu
wa Rais wa Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania, Dkt. Mohammed Gharib Bilal,
akiteta jambo na Balozi wa Uingereza nchini Tanzania, Mh. Dianna
Melrose, wakati wa ufunguzi wa Kongamano la Afrika kuhusu Makubaliano ya
Rasimu mpya ya Dunia inayohusu Usimamizi wa Masuala ya Tabianchi.
Kongamano hilo lilianza jana Sept 3, 2015 kwenye Ukumbi wa Mikutano wa
Kimataifa wa Mwalimu Nyerere jijini Dar esSalaam.
Makamu
wa Rais wa Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania, Dkt. Mohammed Gharib Bilal,
Balozi wa Uingereza nchini Tanzania, Mh. Dianna Melrose, waksikiliza
majadiliano wakati wa ufunguzi wa Kongamano la Afrika kuhusu Makubaliano
ya Rasimu mpya ya Dunia inayohusu Usimamizi wa Masuala ya Tabianchi,
baada ya ufunguzi wa Kongamano hilo lililoanza jana Sept 3, 2015 kwenye
Ukumbi wa Mikutano wa Kimataifa wa Mwalimu Nyerere jijini Dar esSalaam.
Makamu
wa Rais wa Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania, Dkt. Mohammed Gharib Bilal,
akiwa katika picha ya pamoja na baadhi ya washiriki wa Kongamano hilo
baada ya ufunguzi jana. Picha na OMR
SPEECH
BY H.E. DR. MOHAMMED GHARIB BILAL, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
REPUBILIC OF TANZANIA, AT THE CONFERENCE OF AFRICA CLIMATE TALKS:
A
REGIONAL DIALOGUE ON COP21 AND THE NEGOTIATION OF A NEW GLOBAL CLIMATE
GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK HELD AT THE MWALIMU JULIUS NYERERE INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE CENTRE,
DAR ES SALAAM
3RD SEPTEMBER, 2015
Excellencies;
President of SADC Parliamentary Forum;
EU representative;
Honourable Ministers;
Executive Secretaries;
Secretary Generals;
Vice Chancellors;
Distinguished Delegates;
Members of Press
Invited Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Let
me start by expressing my heartfelt appreciation for inviting me to be
the guest of honour at this important Conference on Africa Climate
Talks. This conference is a clear signal that Africa is ready to shift
from being just a mere spectator at COP meetings to a key player. This
comes after the realization that the Kyoto Protocol has not benefited
Africa as the other regions because of poor preparation before the
negotiations. But also, the African ministers who attend COP meetings
face challenges arising from lack of a common stand on African issues.
Africa’s stakes are high; it bears the greatest proportion of risks and
impacts posed by climate change, which incidentally is disproportionate
to its share of responsibility for global warming.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Africa
has demonstrated a strong commitment to the global process.
Observations show the international negotiations to tackle this problem
have been embraced by Africa, even where there should be
reservations. Africa is the only global region with the greatest
proportion of people living below USD $2 a day that imposes a cap to
consumption opportunities. If economic strategies have to be built
around low carbon intensive pathways, how will this affect and restrict
growth in terms of per capita GHG emissions in Africa? Low carbon growth
is definitely a positive thing, if invested in and provided with
adequate support to ensure implementation in terms of finance, capacity
and technology transfer. Unfortunately, all the previous pledges in
relation to support for implementation have fallen short and in some
cases remained illusive promises.
Distinguished Delegates;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
The
President of the United States of America recently stated that Climate
change is the hardest challenge to solve politically and is fast
becoming the weapon of mass destruction. This is an incontrovertible
truth. Climate science is clearer than many
leaders would like to believe. For humanity to have a chance of staying
below the 2°C threshold, a small reduction in CO2 emissions
will not be enough. The unpalatable truth is that emissions will have to
fall to zero later this century in order to stop any further rise in
the atmospheric concentration of CO2. Climate science has
been compelling us to act. 97% of scientific findings show that climate
change is real and humans are responsible. These findings are
evidence-supported; peer-reviewed; and fact-based. Signs of climate
change are evident everywhere. There is sea level rise; extreme weather
events; prolonged droughts; food insecurity and climate change related
conflicts, among others. For the developing countries, these challenges
are interacting with existing vulnerabilities to worsen the already bad
situation. Climate science is telling us that there is still a window of
opportunity; however, this window is closing very fast.
Distinguished Delegates;
In
spite of what may be achieved in Paris, we are all fully aware that the
post-Kyoto agreement that will be negotiated will not remove all
climate challenges facing the world today. However, it will be a step in
the right direction. If we fail to act now, it will be a moral and
policy failure. How can our children and grandchildren understand our
failure to act in the face of such compelling evidence of impending
disaster? Science defines the law of gravity and also defines the
freezing, melting and the boiling points. How do we fail to understand
when the same science tells us that any temperature increase beyond 2°C
is catastrophic? Definitely, something is wrong here.
Honourable Delegates;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
As
we fast approach COP 21, it is encouraging to learn that industrialized
nations are finally realizing the impact and magnitude of climate
change. The United States and China- the world’s greatest emitters- have
realized the importance of the issue of clean energy and have announced
their emission targets. At the G-7 summit held from 7th – 8th June
2015, the G-seven governments declared that the 2°C limit requires
“de-carbonization of the global economy over the course of this
century.” They stated clearly that humanity must not merely reduce, but
must end, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels this century. This
is an important announcement, which must be taken note of. At the
Vatican gathering in April this year, which included world-leading
climate scientists and Nobel Laureates, Pope Francis and the religious
leaders of all the world’s major religions urged the world to take
wisdom from faith and climate science in order to fulfil moral
responsibilities to humanity and to the future of Earth. In the same
vein, the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, clearly stated
that climate change action now is both a practical need and a moral
imperative. We should heed their call.
Distinguished Delegates;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
The
convergence of thinking on the need to take action implies that urgent
and concrete steps are needed to address climate change, as set out in
the Intergovernmental Panel in Climate Change (IPCC’s) Fifth Assessment
Report. In this regard, the 2015 UN Climate Conference in Paris (COP 21)
is a crucial conference, because it needs to achieve a new
international agreement on climate, applicable to all countries with the
aim of keeping global warming below 2°C. It also implies that the
required reduction in emissions of 40 to 70% by 2050 as set by the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is a
challenge that can only be met by a global response. Although
the recent efforts are still substantially short of achieving the
universally-agreed goal of keeping the warming increase below 2° C, the
developments represent an important first step in increasing momentum
for ambition raising and open the way for further improvements in the
run-up towards the global agreement to be adopted at COP 21 in Paris.
Honourable Delegates;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
We
are gathered here today to explore how Africa can take up its position
and play an active role at the COP 21 Conference in Paris at the end of
this year. I understand that this conference is one of the
interconnected sub-regional events that will be part of the preparatory
process for Africa’s contribution to COP 21. It will seek to define an
African climate change narrative and further build confidence and
consensus around key issues. Fortunately, a
lot of our African negotiators understand the intricacies and the
complexities of climate change negotiations. However, it is clear that
although they understand these intricacies and complexities, they have-
in the past- faced major challenges in their attempt to change any
aspect of climate change negotiations. Africa has many African scholars
who are well grounded in the science and politics of climate change.
Therefore, the problem of Africa doesn’t seem to be capacity as such.
The main problem- if one may say- is that they do not have real
political backing from visionary leaders in Africa. It is to expect too
much for the developed countries to do this for us. We need to change
and the change has to start from within. The preparation has to begin
from within. The vision has to be crafted from within and we have to go
to Paris to champion a narrative and cause that is consistent with our
own development aspirations.
Distinguished Delegates;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Finally,
let me point out the crucial issue of the Intended Nationally
Determined Commitments (INDC) that was a cornerstone of the Lima Call
for Action during COP 20 and has emerged as a key expectation of the
Paris climate negotiations. Regrettably, it should be noted that the
framing of the INDC is still heavily skewed towards mitigation, as
opposed to the equal weighting repeatedly requested by parties from
developing countries for mitigation and adaptation. Although the Parties
have been invited to consider the topic of adaptation in their INDCs,
countries are not explicitly expected to put forward “finance
commitments” as part of their INDCs. On the contrary, the document does
request developed countries to provide finance for ambitious mitigation
actions in developing countries. Africa should ensure that the new
agreement reflects the principle of common but differentiated
responsibilities and respective capabilities, in light of different
national circumstances as reiterated in Lima. It is therefore imperative
that Africa should have a clear understanding of the negotiation
process so as to better contribute to it and participate in its
implementation in a meaningful way.
Honourable Delegates;
Invited Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
May I conclude by observing that success at COP 21 is critical to the post-2015 global climate regime that could keep climate change under control. It
is my hope that this conference will contribute to Africa’s
preparedness in forging a strategy that ultimately will result in a
monitoring and evaluation framework for Africa’s climate negotiations.
It is my belief that this conference will definitely put Africa’s main
players on climate change on a better footing as we strive to get the
best for the continent from the new agreement on climate change,
scheduled to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
Since
we are negotiating a new agreement, nobody in Africa will benefit if we
make the same mistakes that we made in the Kyoto Protocol negotiations.
It is therefore important that COP 21 succeeds. If a new climate agreement is not reached, the world’s sustainable development path will be jeopardized.
With
these remarks, it is my singular honor and pleasure to declare The
Conference Open and I wish you successful deliberations.
Thank you for your kind attention.
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