The Africa Climate Summit 2023 in Kenya last week united African leaders for a discussion on the climate crisis, with a specific focus on Africa and its policy stance ahead of COP28 in Dubai.
One would have expected African leaders to propose sovereign solutions to the challenges faced by their countries. These include recurrent hunger, flooding, drought, resource exploitation, water and soil pollution, and control of food systems by Western corporations.
But sadly, the discussions at the early September meeting in Nairobi, Kenya were dominated by Western interests – particularly regarding carbon markets, in which companies buy and sell carbon credits. These are like certificates allowing them to emit a set amount of pollution.
