There is enough evidence on how climate change consequences will adversely affect
Africa despite the fact that it is the continent that has least contributed to the problem.
The international climate change regime recognises Africa's vulnerability to climate
change and provides for special treatment under the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (the UNFCCC). Thus, the international climate change
regime presents an opportunity for African countries to adapt and mitigate the
consequences of climate change through the UNFCCC mechanism. However, the
international climate change legal regime has not been able to adequately assist African
countries to address the consequences of climate change under the vulnerability
principle. Although the current international climate change regime requires developed
countries to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, Africa needs to take steps
itself to address the problem, because it is most vulnerable to the consequences of
climate change.
The African Union (AU) could play a great role in ensuring that the international climate
change regime addresses the consequences of climate change in the region. This could
be done through fostering strong African common positions during international climate
change negotiations. A strong common position could strengthen African bargaining
power and might result in more funding, capacity building and technology development
and transfer for adaptation and mitigation programmes under the UNFCCC-Kyoto
Conference of Parties. However, reaching a strong common position requires the
cooperation of the AU member states. In this context, African regional integration is an
opportunity for the AU to foster such cooperation among member states. The Treaty
Establishing the African Economic Community (the Abuja Treaty), the Constitutive Act
of the AU and the Protocol on the Relations between the AU and Regional Economic
Communities (RECs) prioritise regional economic integration and call for states'
cooperation, but the call has not yet been heeded. To realise deep and viable African
integration, there must be a well-structured institutional and legal framework that defines
the relationship between the AU, the AEC and the RECs. African regional integration is also seen as an avenue whereby the AU can create its
own regional climate-change regime. In this regard, the AU's and RECs' normative
framework on climate change is examined in order to assess whether it adequately
integrates climate change issues. This study finds that although Africa is most
vulnerable to the consequences of climate change, the AU's and RECs' normative
framework on climate change is weak and inadequate to address the problem. The
Framework should integrate climate change issues in order to achieve sustainable
development. The AU should also ensure that member states ratify the relevant treaties
and protocols (the Maputo Nature Convention and the Protocol establishing the African
Court of Justice and Human Rights) that have not yet been ratified in order that they
may become operational. The Maputo Nature Convention puts sustainable development
in the forefront of attention as a reaction to the potentially conflicting environmental and
developmental challenges facing the continent (such as climate change), but it is not yet
in force.
This work finds that human rights law can strengthen the AU's role in addressing
climate change through its normative framework. The human rights approach to climate
change under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (the Banjul Charter) is
a viable avenue because human rights law forms the basis for states' responsibility
based on human rights obligations and principles. The extraterritorial application of the
Banjul Charter presents an avenue for AU institutions such as the Human Rights
Commission and the African Human Rights Court to curb the effects of climate change
through a human rights lens.
The future of the AU is presented within the context of a set of recommendations that
identify strong African regional integration as an avenue through which the AU can
foster the cooperation of member states to address the consequences of climate
change in the AU's and RECs' normative frameworks. General recommendations are
made on the need for the international climate change regime to pay more attention to
issues of funding, capacity building and technology development and transfer on the
basis of the vulnerability principle and in relation to the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. Also, the AU needs to
strengthen its legal and institutional structures to ensure deep African integration that is
capable of addressing common challenges such as the consequences of climate
change. / PhD (Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/14193 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Pallangyo, Daniel Mirisho |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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