Africa Climate Summit links ‘unfair’ debt burden with calls to make continent’s green assets pay off

By CARA ANNA and EVELYNE MUSAMBI
Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The host of the first Africa Climate Summit says climate change is “relentlessly eating away” at Africa’s economic progress and it’s time to have a global conversation about a carbon tax on polluters. Kenya’s president says the continent of more than 1.3 billion people is losing 5% to 15% of its GDP growth every year to the impacts of climate change. That’s a source of frustration in the region that contributes the least to global warming. The summit includes calls to reform the global financial structures that deepen African debt with higher interest rates. Africa also wants to make more of its extensive natural wealth.