African leaders urged to reject proposals on climate change penalties
Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Thomas Tayebwa, has urged African leaders to reject a proposal by the European Union requiring Africa to pay the heaviest penalties of Climate Change yet the continent is the least emitter.
According to reports, Africa’s carbon footprint is the lowest of any continent, accounting for around 3% of global CO2 emissions.
“We must have a fair and just transition that is not rushed. There is no way for example that you can say that Africa can for example do away with fossils. Fossils and coal developed Europe, then for us Uganda who are just going to start exploring oil in 2025 and you say no Uganda don’t explore oil. No, that is not acceptable. We are saying these guys have made a lot of money out of all this dirty fuel so they should pay more for this”. Said Tayebwa.
Tayebwa made the remarks while speaking at the 64th session of the OACPS Parliamentary Assembly and Constitutive Sessions of the Organization of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (OACPS) – the European Union General Assembly in Luanda, Angola.
The five-day OACPS-EU Joint Parliamentary Assemblies commenced on February 17 and ended on Wedensday February 21, 2024.
In 2023, President Museveni in his response to warnings from African leaders at COP27 about the damage climate change is wreaking on the continent said “It is morally bankrupt for Europeans to expect to take Africa’s fossil fuels for their own energy production but refuse to countenance African use of those same fuels for theirs.”
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