From August 5 to August 10, 2024, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa joined over 250 participants from 30 countries, communicating across five major languages: English, French, Portuguese, Swahili and Spanish—at a Global Climate Assembly held in Nairobi, Kenya. The discussions at the assembly focused on building global solidarity to recognize the long-standing capitalist exploitation of vulnerable communities which drives the climate crises, advocating for a system change.
Convened by Taproot Noire, the assembly also sought to dissect the roots of unequal global power relations that perpetuate the marginalization and impoverishment of resource-rich communities, arriving at conclusions and resolutions to prioritize the actual needs of communities in global climate responses. Interestingly, the meeting coincided with ongoing youth-led protests in Kenya against IMF-imposed tax measures.
For decades, despite the issue of climate justice taking a central place at the heart of climate negotiations, including within the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the responsibility of those primarily responsible—industrialised and developed nations—for the most carbon emissions has been diluted into a discourse of charity rather than the rightful demand for reparations owed to affected communities. The Global South, particularly Africa, which contributes the least to the factors driving climate change, continues to bear the brunt of the consequences.
In recent times, the global climate discourse has seen a growing consensus on the need for urgent climate action, particularly with regard to historically polluting countries taking accountability for their excessive carbon emissions. However, the absence of a binding and effective framework for enforcing these responsibilities continues to undermine environmental accountability. Additionally, the fixation of global climate conversations on the scale of climate devastation—though important—often falls short when it fails to probe deeper into the profit-driven interests and political alliances that perpetuate these crises. It is no wonder, then, that climate change negotiations have become tools of trade and international power struggles, with efforts to secure reparations for vulnerable communities being undermined by arguments that dehumanize the affected and dictated by corporate interests.
The Black community, often the most marginalized, is systematically excluded from discussions that should center their concerns and, instead, is forced to accept hollow promises from imperialist powers. This exclusion has led to a growing frustration of the Global South with the highly politicized, corporate-driven Loss and Damage Fund mechanism, which, rather than reflecting and enforcing reparations for frontline communities from historical polluters, remains unenforceable.
Harmonizing Thoughts
Discussing further on the issues, participants at the Assembly noted that for climate justice and reparations to be meaningful, there must be a just redistribution of resources, restoration of healthy relations within the shared global ecosystem, acknowledgment of native sovereignty of local resources, enforceable measures to compel polluting nations and entities to become accountable, respect for communal ethics, appropriate compensation to marginalised communities, restorative justice, and a restructuring of the global financial architecture to enable debt-strapped and developing nations invest monies and attention to climate-sensitive sectors.
This redemption also requires liberation for all oppressed peoples, a deliberate end to neo-colonialism, black dependency, and harmful extractivism, ensuring the preservation of black unity and identity that finds its root in Ubuntu – the philosophy that reminds all individuals of service to humanity.
As the assembly’s engaging discussions concluded, participants agreed to actively contribute to the ongoing discourse on climate reparations as COP29 approaches, with the Loss and Damage Fund, climate finance, and carbon commodification expected to dominate the agenda. To this end, CAPPA committed to organizing a webinar to document the perspectives of frontline communities on what reparations mean to them and the impact of climate change on their communities. This webinar will also scrutinize relevant government policies, assessing their alignment with the expectations of frontline communities and the redefined concept of reparations.
A powerful quote from the Assembly: “It is disheartening that the climate catastrophes in frontline and Black communities are often only seen in global newspaper headlines. This is the narrative we aim to correct. We will make mistakes, it won’t be perfect, but in the end, we hope to reclaim our identity and give voice to those who have been silenced,” – Colette Pichon Battle, Partner at Taproot Vision & Initiatives.
