“I can’t help but notice with some bitterness the absence of some industrial leaders. They are the main polluters on this planet, and they are the ones who should be financing these changes,” Senegalese President Macky Sall, this year’s chair of the African Union (AU), said in opening remarks at the summit.
“This leaves a bad taste in our mouths,” Sall added. “I am a bit disappointed to be honest.”
Top officials convening at the one-day event at the Global Center on Adaptation in Rotterdam, Netherlands, also included Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, Congolese leader Félix Tshisekedi, World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria and the Chair of the AU Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat.
Sall reiterated that regardless of the amount of funding, climate adaptation must leave African countries in control over their own resources.
Mahmoud Mohieldin, the UN climate
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