The Nairobi Summer School on Climate Change came to a close on Saturday with a clarion call to increase climate financing and enhance adaption measures to deal with the growing climate change catastrophe.
The summer school was attended by hundreds of youths from Africa.
Speakers at the Nairobi Summer School on Climate Change held at Chuka University called for more climate financing to the African continent to help deal with emerging climate change issues.
The Chair of the Africa Group of Negotiators Mohammed Ali asked young people to tap technology and innovation to help the African continent deal with climate change.
Other speakers decried the low climate financing in Africa where less than a 100 billion dollars are channeled to the continent against an annual need of more than 450 billion dollars.
The Executive Director of the Pan African Climate Alliance (PACJA) Mithika Mwenda urged young people to be proactive in sharing the message of climate.
The event also witnessed the launch of the 8th edition of the African climate change and environmental reporting Award 2024.
Climate change has become a major conversation in the Global South especially in Africa, which is the worst affected continent by climate change.
The developing world, where Africa falls is grappling with major funding needs running into trillion of dollars.
In order for the Global South to implement its nationally determined contributions, they require about 6 trillion dollars in the next six years.
To deal with climate adaptation, Africa requires an estimated 387 billion dollars per year according to a United Nations emission GAP report for 2023.
The African continent has been battling various climate catastrophes in the last five years, ranging from devastating droughts to deadly floods.
Speaking during the launch of the 8th edition of the African climate change and environmental reporting Award 2024 at the Chuka University, Dr. Mwenda urged the African media to report more on climate change, especially climate financing and climate justice as well as adaption financing.
The ACCER awards recognizes media practitioners who are using the power of imaginative story-telling to highlight the impact of climate change in Africa.
The finals of the awards will be held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in September 2024.
Held annually, the Nairobi Summer School on Climate Justice is a flagship initiative of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance that brings together hundreds of young people from the African continent in a bid to espouse the pressing needs of climate change and mold the next generation of climate change though leaders.
