Africa’s first climate summit opens in Nairobi with plea to focus on opportunities

Kenya’s president opened Africa’s first climate summit with a plea for delegates to identify opportunities that may arise from solving environmental problems rather than focusing on grievances against industrialized nations that are responsible for the world’s highest carbon emissions.

William Ruto, who opened the three-day event on Monday in his country’s capital Nairobi, said the summit’s underlying ambition is to shift the climate conversation from a “polluters versus victim” discourse to finding opportunities to overhaul the continent’s economies while tackling climate change.

Africa’s carbon footprint “remains small”, Ruto said, “but the human toll of climate change is disproportionately high.” He added that focusing on climate action would propel Africa to middle-income status.