Kenya from Monday, September 4, hosted the inaugural African Climate Summit at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), Nairobi.
President William Ruto closed the climate summit on Wednesday, September 6, at KICC. Here is the full speech by President Ruto.
1. This week, African leaders from government and the private, as well as, academic, scientific, technological, philanthropic and civil society sectors converged in Nairobi to confer, consult, deliberate and formulate consensus on a clear, new, bold, innovative, transformational and distinctly African position on how the international community must engage with the undeniable climate emergency that is threatening human well-being and life on our planet.
2. The Africa Climate Summit is both a demonstration of the unwavering collective commitment of the people of Africa to their vision to make humanity’s first home, a land of abundant potential, limitless opportunity and the possibility of shared prosperity. It also showcases our determination to mobilise a global coalition of emergency responders to ensure that the industrialisation necessary to drive future economic transformation, restores our planet’s vitality and ecological balance.
3. At the Summit, our shared understanding became clear, that Africa is not only the cradle of humanity, it is its future, and that we are the last frontier of untapped potential in the form of hundreds of millions of young men and women who are educated, skilled, motivated, innovative, ready and willing to drive the enterprises and industries that will unlock the possibilities promised by our immense endowment of natural assets, mineral resources and green energy potential, in order to unleash opportunities and prosperity for Africa and the world on an unprecedented scale.
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4. At the Summit, we also made it clear that we are aware of the unjust configuration of multilateral institutional frameworks that perpetually place African nations on the back-foot, through costly financing which plunge our economies into a debt trap and deny them resources change, invest in energy transition and facilitate industrialisation to create jobs and wealth, and to reduce inequality.
5. As a continent, we have developed our common position which encapsulates our ambitions for socioeconomic transformation and our climate action agenda. This position is anchored on the potential that Africa holds to decarbonize the global economy and sets the stage for green industrialisation throughout the world. We demand a fair playing ground for our countries to access the investment needed to unlock the potential and translate it into opportunities. We further demand a just multilateral development finance architecture, to liberate our economies from odious debt and onerous barriers to necessary financial resources.
6. We are clear in our minds and hearts that the international community must walk with us in this journey into a future of prosperity and security in an ecologically balanced, thriving planet. We are therefore determined to have difficult conversations, take hard decisions and make uncomfortable changes, to set international consensus on an Afro-centric, and globally inclusive path into an African future.
7. On a continent as young as Africa, it is impossible to imagine the future without the youth. Our young men and women, in every African country, are the primary stakeholders who will define and drive our agenda for green transformation and sustainable opportunity. Our message will not be clear if the voice of the youth is missing. Our efforts to achieve prosperity will not succeed if there are no opportunities for the youth. And our journey will be long, hard and in vain if the youth are not coming with us.
8. Let the declaration of our commitment to act in unison and deliver our aspirations go forth in the firm, clear voice of a united Africa from Nairobi today, and tell the world about Africa’s youth, potential, opportunity, and its capacity to actualise a world of possibility. We understand that possibility, opportunity, potential and youth, all point towards the future. That is why Africa is the continent of the future. We are the young, green continent of the future.
