EAC to champion sustainable climate action- Ruto

President William Ruto (left) with Tanzania's Samia Suluhu during the EAC Food Security forum in Arusha, Tanzania. [PCS]

President William Ruto has said innovative and sustainable measures must be devised to mitigate the effects of climate change.

These measures, he noted, will be assumed by the East African Community as it heads to Dubai for COP28 later this month.

Speaking at the EAC High Level Forum on Climate Change and Food Security in Arusha, President Ruto said Africa will showcase its assets, including a hardworking and skilled human capital, immense renewable energy reserves and the largest swathes of uncultivated arable land.

He pointed out that these resources offer the globe the best opportunity for global green industrialisation and thus the ability to decarbonise manufacturing.

"If there is one thing we should achieve at COP28 is climate financing through climate investment," President Ruto told his colleagues Samia Suluhu Hassan (Tanzania), Evariste Ndayishimiye (Burundi) and Salva Kiir (South Sudan).

Also at the meeting, that came ahead of the EAC Heads of State Summit, were Rwanda Prime Minister Edouardo Ngirente and Rebecca Kadaga, the first Ugandan Deputy Prime Minister.

The keynote address was given by former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

President Ruto said Africa will, therefore, be calling for the signing of a new charter on financing that will reform the current international financial system, which is not suited to the climate change era.

"The new charter should be on new ways of financing that is climate sensitive and supports positive growth," he said.

Kenya, the EAC and Africa, he explained, are building a global coalition that will help give the world the necessary new dawn that will aid in mitigating the effects of climate change.