Africa is home to nearly one fifth of humanity and accounts for less than 3% of the world's energy-related CO2 emissions, the lowest per capita of any region, according to the International Energy Agency. President Macky Sall's candidacy for UN Secretary-General grounds its position on climate adaptation in those figures, because the continent nonetheless endures the harshest effects.
The summit of 5 September 2022. On that day, as chair of the African Union, President Macky Sall co-chaired, with former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the first world summit devoted to accelerating adaptation in Africa. Support gathered there behind a programme aiming at twenty-five billion dollars of investment in food security and resilient infrastructure, as well as in access to finance.
Adaptation on a par with mitigation. Climate finance goes first to cutting emissions. For a continent that emits little, the priority is protecting harvests and coasts from disruption already under way, and protecting cities too. A useful multilateralism ranks adaptation with mitigation, and pays what it promised.
A method for tracking promises. The method counts as much as the principle: it starts from facts and puts numbers on needs, then puts dates on commitments before holding every party to account. A financing pledge with no deadline and no follow-up protects no one. The trust of exposed countries is won on payments observed.
Beyond Africa. Small island states, Asia's deltas and Latin America's drylands face the same rule, which charges the heaviest price to those who emitted least. By placing adaptation on the agenda of peace, the Secretary-General would speak for all of them.
From the 2022 co-chairmanship to the Secretariat. These commitments on adaptation rest on twelve years as head of state and on the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022, the year of the September summit. That experience explains why the vision statement filed with the United Nations frames them as obligations and conceives peace and security together with development.
Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.
The International Energy Agency's data and the 2022 summit commitments are public. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net