ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- The global community has been urged to boost cooperation to combat the adverse effects of climate change, as the African continent bears the brunt of climate change-induced challenges.
The urgent call was made during the ongoing Climate Change and Development in Africa Conference (CCDA-8), which is underway at the headquarters of the African Union (AU) in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa from August 28 to 30.
"As countries raise their climate ambition, we must remember the fundamental principle of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which calls for wide cooperation by all countries and their participation in an effective and appropriate international response, in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities and their social and economic conditions," said Ethiopia's State Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy Frehiwot Woldehanna.
Woldehanna further warned that "without urgent action to tackle climate change, Africa will not meet the targets of the other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)."
"Concerted global efforts to tackle climate change are needed now more than ever before," Woldehanna said, adding that tackling the adverse effects of climate change is "indeed a race we must win - all of us, even though Africa and other Least Developing Countries (LDCs) have contributed the least to cause."
Director of Rural Economy and Agriculture at the AU Commission Godfrey Bahigwa also stressed that while climate adaptation is a priority for Africa, "the current global climate financing flows for adaptation are limited with a strong inclination towards financing mitigation related projects, as opposed to adaptation-related ones."
The AU Director also stressed that the AU Commission is working on mobilizing resources and partnerships to support AU member states to domesticate and implement their Nationally Determined Contributions to Climate Action (NDCs).
"We also want to establish a continental reporting mechanism that will show the process that Africa is making in the implementation of the Paris agreement on climate change," he added.
Elvis Paul Tangem, Africa Union Coordinator for the Great Green Wall Initiative, also underscored the need to exert concerted efforts both in Africa and across the globe to tackle climate change, as he emphasized recent climate-induced incidents that affect the world.
"For the past 3 weeks or so, the Amazon Rainforest has been burning. Our leaders have been politicking about it but very little is being done," said Tangem.
The Great Green Wall, or Great Green Wall of the Sahara and the Sahel, is Africa's flagship initiative to combat the effects of climatic change and desertification.
The three-day climate-themed continental conference, which is being held under the theme "Stepping up Climate Action for Resilient Economies in Africa - a Race we Can (and must) Win," mainly underscored Africa's common commitment to the Paris climate accord.
The Paris Agreement, which regarded as the first initiative to bring all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, envisaged a new course in the global climate effort with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so.
The Paris climate accord mainly aspires to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
