A resolute defender of just causes

Most of which are national proposals which were recommended for consideration so as to make the future agreement to come out of the summit an inclusive document or, simply one which is not perceived as having been imposed on anyone, especially the developed countries.

After years of feet-dragging, the international community seems finally set for an agreement which may help keep the dangerous scares of the climate change and all its ensuing dangers at bay. For one thing, attitudes exhibited by some nations, mostly those that pollute the most, left the impression that they had not yet taken the full measure of the threats posed by greenhouse gas emissions which were beginning to be a real menace for humanity as a race. The Kyoto Protocol which, by far, has been the most determined initiative to address the threat as well as provide some solace for the most affected countries remained virtually snubbed.

President Biya emerged from the opening session of the summit as a resolute and determined whistle blower of injustices in the world system which he has always been. His criticism of the world economic order of the mid ‘80s is still very valid because double standards which see either outright discrimination of the developing countries or the non-consideration of their aspirations continue to characterize the functioning of the world system. The fact that these injustices have been carried even into a scourge that does not exclusively affect the weak nations but also the developed ones, as is the case with the climate threat is enough reason to cry even louder for the need for a more just international order.

The management of the climate crisis is a good example of this neglect. In 1997 in Kyoto, Japan; some industrialized countries undertook to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent by 2012. That was hardly done. And more recently in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2009 there was the pledge to reduce gas emissions to a maximum 2°Celsius and the making available of some 30 billion USD by developed countries by 2012 was not attained.

A year later at Cancun, new measures were envisaged including the suggestion to make available a whopping 100 billion USD by 2015 as well as the creation of a green fund for climate. It is therefore easy to understand President Paul Biya’s rhetorical question when he addressed a side-summit for African leaders in Paris last Tuesday.

“Is Africa really aware of the gravity of the situation”, he asked before putting his finger on the financing issue which remains the weakest link in all efforts to fight the climate change problem. A clear case for the need of money is about efforts to address the desertification of Lake Chad which the President took up fervently. On the other hand is the Congo Basin of which Cameroon is part and whose protection will require colossal financing.

The two projects will definitely find in President Biya someone who will do the necessary advocacy in a way he and his other peers from the Lake Chad basin countries did last Tuesday and for which substantial financing is already being promised, notably by France. President Biya’s image at the summit remained that of a man wont on correcting the wrongs in the world order and working for a world in which solidarity is the watchword.