“ Climate change is the greatest security challenge of our time “. It is with these words that German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock opened the 6th Berlin conference on climate security on Tuesday October 8, 2024. This is a new but crucial aspect for Africa, where the impacts of global warming are hitting many already fragile countries hard, while the continent contributes the least to greenhouse gas emissions.
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With our special correspondent in Berlin, Stefanie Schüler
Nowhere is the link between climate change and security issues more evident than in Africa, said Ahmed Hussein, Egypt’s representative to the UN Peace and Security Council.African Union. “ The crisis in Darfur, several crises in the Sahel region… They are due to a lack of resources. People can’t provide for their families, so they try to find other ways to do so. This causes conflicts. And these conflicts turn into war. Climate change therefore acts as an amplifier of what is happening on the continent », assures Ahmed Hussein.
If the observation is there, decision-makers lacked scientific data. To remedy this, the African Union commissioned a study in 2018 published in August 2024. Entitled “ Assessing Climate Security Risks in Africa “, this detailed analysis of more than 350 pages aims to achieve a common approach to the continent, explains Lieutenant-Colonel Sheku Tejan Sesay of the African Union Commission. “ The common African position is still a work in progress. Because it requires the agreement of our 55 members. They must take ownership of the study and be confident enough to consider this document as their own. “.
The study still needs to be adopted by the African Union Peace and Security Council.
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