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AfricaFocus Bulletin
At the climate summit in Egypt last week, President Biden pledged that the United States would take the lead on the climate crisis. But his speech was eclipsed the same day by a powerful call to action by Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados.
The next day Mottley delivered the 20th Nelson Mandela Lecture in Durban, South Africa, and was hailed by Mandela's widow Graça Machel as the new leader of the Global South, taking the baton from Mandela to confront this generation's polycrisis.
To his credit, President Biden at least showed up at the COP27 summit, in contrast to his geopolitical rivals in Moscow and Beijing. And he was able to point to significant action on the climate in the Inflation Reduction Act in August.
While that act was a significant step forward for the United States to reduce its own omissions, the central theme of the summit was payment of "loss and damage" to those countries most affected by climate change by those countries most responsible for the fossil fuel emissions causing it. Biden avoided that language entirely, instead pledging to ask Congress for $2 billion to assist developing countries in responding to climate change.
In Durban, Mottley put the case for loss and damages like this:
Addressing the fears of rich countries about "open-ended liability", she added:
Responding to Mottley's speech, Graça Machel praised her leadership and reminded her listeners of their own responsibility.
The quotes above give only a hint of the insight and passion Mottley shows in speaking, which you can sample below in two short videos. The first is her 13-minute speech at COP27, and the second is an excerpt from her full speech at the Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture, followed by brief remarks by Graça Machel.
It is particularly fitting that this new leader of the Global South comes from Barbados, which was, as Howard French details in his new book Born in Blackness (now available in paperback), the original source of the slave-produced sugar industry that fueled England´s economy in the 17th century.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus Bulletin is edited by William Minter. For an archive of previous Bulletins, see http://www.africafocus.org,
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