Participants at a meeting on climate change in the continent, held at the Pan African Parliament (PAP) headquarters in Johannesburg, said on Thursday that Africa needs a model climate change law that leaves no one behind.
The executive director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), Mithika Mwenda, told parliamentarians at a session of the PAP’s sixth parliamentary standing committees in Midrand, South Africa, that the continent needs to formulate an inclusive model climate change law that covers short-, medium- and long-term goals aligned with global, regional, national, sub-national and local commitments and targets.
She also stressed that this model law must include partnerships with public and private organizations and institutions leveraging innovation and technology.
In this context, Ms. Valerie Johnston of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) engaged the Pan-African Parliament’s Committee on Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment on a model law on climate change for the continent, adding that the United Nations will provide political and legal support for climate action in Africa.
For her part, the Chairperson of the PAP Committee on Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, Didier Molisho Sadi urged African legislators to prioritize the adoption of the key points presented to them by the FAO and the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance.