Obama's Influence on Africa @ COP15? :: How Much is Enough?

photo: Prime Minister Meles Zenawi

Early this morning the White House announced that President Obama had placed a phone call to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia.

This is what the White House said of the call:

"With Prime Minister Meles, the President reviewed efforts by the United States on climate change and reiterated his commitment to making progress. He expressed his appreciation for the leadership role the Prime Minister was playing in work with African countries on climate change, and urged him to help reach agreement at the Leaders summit later this week in Copenhagen. For his part, Prime Minister Meles stressed the importance of success in Copenhagen, and the need to find ways to make suitable progress on the mitigation, adaptation, and the provision of finance for the developing countries."

Also taking place today, France and “Ethiopia, representing Africa” announced specific hopes for a Copenhagen agreement on the French Presidency’s website.

Activists are concerned that this is more than a coincidence, especially since they are not happy with the French-Ethiopian announcement.

According to Bill McKibben of 350.org “The ugly and overt pressure on developing countries to sign an agreement that will put their very survival in jeopardy has begun. It’s very tough to stand up to the Americans, especially Barack Obama. But even the U.S. president can’t protect nations against rising waters, withering droughts, and dried-up glaciers. This is the moment for Africa, for island nations, for the developing world to insist on a future.”

Of interest to me is that the French-Ethiopian plan proposes a “fast start” fund, which would pay out $10 billion over the years 2010, 2011 and 2012. Augustine Njamnshi of Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance said that “Every other African country has committed to policy based on the science. That means at least 45% cuts by rich countries by 2020 and it means $400 billion fast-track finance not $10 billion. You cannot say you are proposing a ’solution’ to climate change if your solution will see millions of Africans die and if the poor not the polluters keep paying for climate change.”

Word got out today that when Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama lands in Copenhagen, he will bring along an offer of $10 billion (US) to help developing countries fight global warming, over a course of three years. This is more than the $9.2 billion that world's 5th largest emitter of greenhouse gases had last pledged for this cause.

The Pan-African Climate Justice Alliance issued a press release today on behalf of the African civil society present @ COP15 condemning the agreement between France and Ethiopia.

From the press release: We call on President Meles Zenawi to rescind the appeal or to step down as Coordinator of African Heads of State and Governments on Climate Change.