In Marrakech another COP is possible

This morning, during the COP22 main meetings, a side event took place out of the COP zones around Marrakech. It was the COP Africa, at the Autonomous Space in the Cadi Ayyad University of Marrakech, during which occurred a series of different events. The conference was organized by the Coalition of Morocco for Climate Justice and had the participation of several initiatives from the whole African continent. Numerous representants from different agendas, such as gender, migration, and youth, talked about their investigations, concerns, and perspectives on the climate change issue.
As a network, the Coalition of Morocco for Climate Justice has a focal point in each country of Africa, and through this system, they try to build capacity in the African society based on their own experiences. In the same way, as a big continent, they try to create a common position among the African countries to reach their goals. Likewise, they aim to include the African civil society in their decision process.

Moreover, it is important to highlight that they were responsible for the organization of the Climate Justice March, on Sunday 13th of November in Marrakech, where almost 15 thousand people, from all around the world, participated.
Hindou Oumarou, representant of the Coalition of Morocco for Climate Justice, held that the COP22 is a big chance for Africa to “knock the door” of the civil society. He stated that “we can´t just talk, we have to implement our action plans and improve what we are already doing for the climate change agenda.

This is a huge opportunity to raise the voice and opinion of the African people.” Similarly, he declared that “adaptation has to be the main agenda in Africa because many countries on the continent are already suffering from climate change and the climate change it´s the cause of many other problems like migration. We are seeing people fighting each other for food, like Ruanda and Burundi case. Just the peace is not a solution, we need to put action, and the adaptation should be our objective. After adaptation will become the mitigation agenda, but first we need to be prepared.”

As it is well known, despite its negligible contributions in terms of GHG emissions, many African countries are already suffering from climate change adverse effects. Their GHG emissions represent the 7% out of the entire global amount as stated Hindou, this morning event moderator.Finally, Hindou said that Africa will not move on if, first of all, they don’t establish a truly democratic government for the “climate transition”.
To whom it may concern, the organization has planned over 350 activities throughout this week. The schedule can be found on the CMJC website.