For the first time, Africa will present a common position and demand billions of dollars in compensation for the climate change damage that rich nations have caused.
"Policy-makers have to agree to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and adhere to the principle that the polluter pays," African Union commission chairman Jean Ping told the seventh World Forum on Sustainable Development, held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso this weekend.
At the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, "Africa will have a common position. We have decided to speak with one voice", and Africa will demand that "reparations and damages" should be paid by polluting countries, Ping said according to AFP.
On Friday, Burkina Faso's Environment Minister Salifou Sawadogo drew up the bill.
"We think 65 billion dollars are needed to deal with the effects of climate change on a continental scale. That is to say that our expectations are very high," Sawadogo said an added that "we are all on the same planet so there is a duty of solidarity to help the most vulnerable countries, like we are, implement policies to adapt to climate change."
According to AFP, Africans account for only four percent of global greenhouse gas emissions while the central Congo basin is considered one of the worlds "green lungs" together with the Amazon rain forest. In comparison, the US state of Texas "with 30 million inhabitants creates as much greenhouse gases as the billion Africans taken together," Sawadogo said.
The Ouagadougou meeting was attended by the presidents of Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Congo, Mali and Togo.
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