NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — Africa must be an architect of its own ecological future, said the continent’s Catholic bishops as they took part in the Second Africa Climate Summit, which ended Wednesday (Sept. 10) in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Forty-five heads of state and government representatives attended the three-day summit hosted by the African Union Commission and the Ethiopian government, joining 25,000 climate activists, business executives and heads of organizations as well as faith leaders. The summit, first held in Nairobi last September, will help shape African leaders’ positions on climate change ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Brazil Nov. 10-21.
“Africa bears disproportionate impacts — droughts, cyclones, floods, desertification — despite contributing least to global emissions,” said the official statement of SECAM, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences in Africa and Madagascar, released as the summit got underway. “The Catholic Church in Africa calls for bold, fair, and urgent action to ensure that climate solutions are Africa-led, community-rooted, and just.”
Africa accounts for just 2% to 3% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions from energy and industrial sources, and its per capita carbon output is about a quarter of the global average.
On Sunday, Archbishop Roger Coffi Anoumou of the Diocese of Lokossa, in the west African country of Benin, said the bishops believe Africa cannot only be subject to foreign interests, and must respect the goals of the contin …