UN Secretary-General in Tanzania: No Region Will be More Affected by Climate Change Than Africa
26 February 2009: In a lecture titled “Dealing with a Changing World - African Solutions to Africa's Challenges,” delivered in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon underlined that Africa will be particularly affected by climate change. He also recalled that he had declared 2009 the year of climate change, both because of the Copenhagen Conference in December and because of the need for a global green new deal to address the economic crisis.
Urging the recognition of Africa's special needs, he called for: more support for adaptation efforts; partnerships between those “with financial resources and technological know-how” and “those who need them;” and consensus on the need for a global green stimulus package.
He listed four political targets to achieve progress in meeting the challenges of climate change, namely agreement on: the mid-term mitigation target by 2020 for industrialized countries; the full scope of mitigation measures for developing countries; a clear timetable and predictable financing for mitigation and adaptation measures for developing countries; the governance structure and mechanism to channel financial and technological support for adaptation; and greener growth. Ban indicated that he would remind world leaders of their existing commitments to Africa at the April G20 summit in London, UK. [The Lecture]