Kagame calls out wealthy nations on climate finance
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame Friday called for more funding from wealthy nations to tackle climate change.
He was speaking at the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in Samoa’s capital Apia.
Samoa is the first Pacific island state to host the summit.
Kagame said the summit came at a turning point when temperatures are rising, adding it was literally a matter of survival for small island developing States in the Pacific and the Caribbean.
“Africa and Asia also share this burden. Two-thirds of the world’s small states are members of the Commonwealth. We cannot ignore the voices of those who are bearing the brunt of this crisis, and they should not have to beg for our support,” he said.
He said ahead of COP-29 United Nations climate summit in Azerbaijan, Commonwealth countries needed to act and lead by example, noting that making “empty promises can only move the needle for so long.”
“We continue to support His Majesty the King’s Sustainable Markets Initiative, as a blueprint for public-private partnerships and green investment, throughout the Commonwealth. Indeed, what will make us cross the finish line in the fight against climate change is more finance from wealthy countries. Still, our collective efforts must not stop there. The terms must be favourable, without pushing developing countries into more debt,” Kagame said.
Countries need trillions of dollars to help tackle the causes and impacts of climate change.
In Azerbaijan next month negotiators are expected to agree on a new financing goal to replace wealthy nations' current commitment to provide $100 billion each year to climate finance to developing countries.
Climate change has been blamed for fueling worsening disasters.
As such, developing countries need more money to help them adapt to global warming, and cut their own planet-warming emissions by investing in things such as renewable energy.
Over time global temperatures have risen about 2.3 degrees Farenheit above pre-industrial levels.
The outgoing Secretary General Patricia Scotland Baroness Scotland, noted the accelerating impacts of climate change and ecological breakdown causing more frequent and devastating disasters, destroying lives and livelihoods, threatening years of hard-won progress among the challenges.
The Commonwealth is a grouping of 56 countries.
Rwanda, which joined the Commonwealth in November, 2009, is one of the members of the organization without colonial ties to Britain.
Inter-Commonwealth trade is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2026 and $2 trillion by 2030, and intra-Commonwealth investment has tripled since 2016, according to data provided by Scotland.
