COP ’21: Cameroon’s Landmark Participation

The phase involving the participation of Heads of State and government may be over; but delegations, including that from Cameroon, are still working hard to ensure that a binding and inclusive agreement is arrived at by next December 11. But even as we await the final result, one must acknowledge the extraordinary inputs offered by the President of the Republic during his two principal outings at the Paris summit. The first was on the opening day of the summit last Monday when he addressed the summit.

Although the conference organization had limited speeches to three minutes, President Paul Biya was able to send a strong message on the need to obtain an agreement, given the urgency of the climate threat in the world today. “…Our conclusions and compromises must be binding…It is not an impossible task…Let us be guided simply by the requirement of human solidarity and proper appraisal of the urgent need for a solution”, he told the opening plenary session of the summit.

He also announced that although Cameroon was a low greenhouse gas-emitting country, it had taken a number of measures notably the reduction of carbon footprint by 32 percent by 2035 from the situation of 2010 as well as controlling desertification and sustainable water resource management.

Later in the day, the President was represented by the External Relations Minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella at the launching of the International Solar Alliance, an initiative led by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to popularize the use of solar energy as a solution to the current problems of access to energy, especially by the poor countries. The event, chaired by the French President and also attended by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was heavily attended by other African leaders, justifying the pertinence of the project which could open wide windows of opportunities for African countries and particularly Cameroon for easy access to cheap and clean energy from the sun; a veritable gift from God.

Although events involving the direct participation of Heads of State ended on Monday, the Head of State actively took part at a mini-summit held on Tuesday with particular focus on specific African problems.

Here, African leaders, especially those from climate problem-prone areas such as the Sahel and the Lake Chad basin exchanged views on the best practices to get out of their predicament as well as presented their financing proposals to international development partners in the noted presence of very attentive and receptive senior officials of the African Development Bank and the World Bank. At this side summit, the President of the Republic made a clarion call for financing which remains the most difficult problem on the road to any possible solutions, especially on climate matters.

One can also highlight the fact that the President’s stay in Paris also helped galvanize militants of his ruling CPDM party   whose newly-elected officials of the France-North section held a reception in a Parisian hotel to celebrate their election in an event also attended by members of the presidential entourage. Although having no direct link with the summit, the event came to remind all that the presence of the Head of State anywhere has a mobilization effect on Cameroonians irrespective of where they find themselves.