Earth Equity News

African Ministers to Industrialized Countries: Show Us Your Commitment. AFP, May 29, 2009. "African environment ministers on Friday demanded clear commitment from industrialized countries to fund projects to counter the effects of global warming. They lamented lack of commitment by developed states to fund projects that will help Africa, the world's lowest polluter, to cope with the effects of climate change. 'There is no commitment that has been made to fund adaptation and there are still conditionalities... being pegged,' South Africa's Environment Minister Buyelwa Sonjica said. 'If anything we would have wanted a stronger leadership from the developed world and I am not sure if it's there. I haven't seen it yet,' said Sonjika who heads the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment. The ministers who gathered in Nairobi also agreed on a common stand on climate change to be presented at the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen in December. The agreement calls for more finances and clean energy technology transfer as well as significant carbon emission cuts by developed countries. The ministers want industrialized nations to cut emissions by 25 to 40% by 2020 below the 1990 levels."