Ex-lawmaker urges Africa to shift from climate pledges to action

A former member of the House of Representatives, Sam Onuigbo, has called on African countries to move beyond climate pledges and negotiations to concrete implementation.

Onuigbo, who stated this at the 14th Climate Change and Development in Africa Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, said Africa’s climate future must be “built, financed, governed and defended by Africans, on terms Africa itself has written.”

According to a statement he personally issued on Tuesday, the President of GLOBE Legislators said that the continent must take greater control of the institutions, financing and policies shaping its climate future.

“A continent can be well represented in a system it does not shape. African climate leadership must mean moving from being consulted to being the author. Africa must move from climate pledges to implementation,” he said.

Onuigbo said African countries should transform their Nationally Determined Contributions into implementation frameworks, investment plans, sectoral programmes and bankable projects backed by legislation, budgets and effective oversight.

He also called for stronger adaptation measures, citing Nigeria’s recurring floods and warning that adaptation should be measured by its impact on reducing vulnerability and losses.

“Adaptation should be judged not by projects announced, but by whether vulnerability and losses are actually reduced,” he said.

He said Africa had rightly demanded climate justice because it contributed the least to historical greenhouse gas emissions while suffering some of the most severe impacts of climate change.

He, however, said the continent must now move beyond presenting its climate priorities at international forums to exercising what he described as “climate agency.”

Explaining the concept, Onuigbo said participation meant being present at global climate negotiations, while representation meant having African interests reflected in agreements and declarations.

Agency, he added, meant designing the rules, institutions, financing mechanisms and implementation pathways that would determine Africa’s future.

“A continent can be well represented in a system it does not shape. African climate leadership must mean moving from being consulted to being the author,” he said.

On climate finance, Onuigbo urged reforms to ensure African countries benefit directly from available resources, warning that financing arrangements that deepen debt or dependence on foreign intermediaries cannot be considered equitable.

He urged African parliamentarians to play a greater role in turning climate commitments into laws, budgets and accountability mechanisms.