SDGs framework as the blueprint for climate change action and sustainable development in Africa: Role of law and parliamentarians

• Date: 14 December 2017
• Author: Ladan, M.T.
• Published date: 14 December 2017
• Pages: 159-207
• Citation: (2016) 22 SAJELP 159

159

SDGs FRAMEWORK AS THE BLUEPRINT

FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION AND

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA:

ROLE OF LAW AND PARLIAMENTS

MT Ladan*

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim at tackling key systematic

barriers to sustainable development such as inequality, poverty, unsustainable

consumption and production patterns, inadequate infrastructure and lack of

decent jobs. The SDGs provide useful guidance for shaping law, policy and

practice for implementation of effective and ambitious climate change action.

Specifically, they exhort nations to share innovation and prosperity, promote

global cooperation and solidarity, and ensure that equality and Climate Justice

are promoted and attained. It is against this background that this paper seeks

to establish a significant nexus between the SDGs, human rights and climate

change; examine the role of law and parliaments in the progressive realization

of the SDGs; and to conclude with some viable options for Africa.

1 INTRODUCTION

The 193 Member State of the United Nations (UN) reached

consensus1 on the outcome document of a new sustainable

development2 agenda entitled, ‘Transforming our World: - The

2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.’ In September

2015, Heads of State and Government adopted in New York, this

* LLB, LLM , PhD , Hubert Humphrey Fellow (Univ. MN, USA),

Professor of law, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.

1 After months of tireless intergovernmental negotiations, and a final session

dragging over the weekend, the SDGs process concluded on Sunday, August

2nd 2015 with the adoption of the 29 page document tagged: - “Transforming

our World: - the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”

2 In 1987, the UN released the Brundtland Commission Report, which

included what is now one of the most widely recognized definitions of the

term: - “Sustainable development is development which meets the needs of the

present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their

needs.” The Commission, formally the World Commission on Environment

and Development, was convened by the UN in 1983. In establishing the

Commission, the UN General Assembly recognized that environmental

problems were global in nature and determined that it was in the common

interest of all matters to establish policies for sustainable development.

(2016) 22 SAJELP 159

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160 SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND

POLICY

comprehensive universal, integrated and transformative agenda3

which includes a set of far-reaching and people-centred 17

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) and 169 targets.4 The

SDGs are part of an ambitious, bold sustainable development

agenda that focuses on the three interconnected elements of

sustainable development: - economic growth, social inclusion

and environmental protection/sustainability.5 The SDGs aim

at tackling key systematic barriers to sustainable development

such as inequality, poverty, unsustainable consumption and

production patterns, inadequate infrastructure and lack of decent

jobs.6

The SDGs provide useful guidance for shaping law, policy

and practice for implementation of effective and ambitious

climate change action.7 Specifically, they exhort nations to

share innovation and prosperity, promote global cooperation

and solidarity, and ensure that equality and Climate Justice8 are

promoted and attained.9

There is a consensus that climate change is a critical issue for

Africa10 and indeed, its greatest challenge in the 21st Century, along

with poverty. Climate change is likely to disproportionately affect

the continent’s development trajectory, as most African countries

are characterized by undiversified economic structures, poor

infrastructure, fragile governance structures and institutions, poor

3 Adopted by the Heads of State and Government during the 70th anniversary

of the UN, as the road to human dignity and for global action for the next

15years (2016-2030).

4 The complete list of goals and targets are available at: - http://www.un.org/

sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-developmentgoals/. The outcome is available

at: - http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld

5 Ibid. The environmental dimension of sustainable development is covered

in the goals on climate resilience, oceans, marine resources, ecosystems and

biodiversity, thereby bringing core issues into the goals and larger framework

for global action. See SDGs 11 and 13-15.

6 See SDGs 1-10 and 12.

7 SDG 13 serves as the blueprint for climate action.

8 See MT Ladan ‘Addressing the Plight of Environmental Migrants through

African Union and ECOWAS Community Laws’ (2014) 3 NIALS Journal of

Environmental Law, (NJEL) 134 -170.

9 See SDGs 5 and 13.

10 Recent reports of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change

(IPCC), (2007, 2011 and 2012) have shown that Africa is the most vulnerable

continent to climate change.

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human development and most importantly, the heavy reliance on

agriculture for the majority of the population.11

The threat to economic growth, which is central to development

and poverty reduction, is among the most significant consequences

of climate change.12 The impact of climate change is a threat to

Africa’s aspirations for economic growth and poverty reduction

directly through efforts of changing water availability; loss of

biodiversity; declining or volatile agricultural yields, climate-

related humanitarian disasters (including floods and droughts);

increased incidence and prevalence of vector-borne diseases;

weakened infrastructure; political instability due to heightened

conflict over scarce resources, and displacement of people as

well as through the secondary effects of these phenomena.13

The effects of climate change are more severe for vulnerable

and disempowered groups in the community including women,

children and persons with disabilities who have the potential of

being strong actors in current and future development.14 Also, a

hostile climate will make achieving SDGs much more costly for

African countries.15

11 See African Union/AMCEN- 15-REF-11 (2015): - African Strategy on

Climate Change (May 2014) at 10-12.

12 The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Meeting at

its 55th Ordinary Session held in Luanda, Angola, from 28 April to 12 May

2014, adopted a Resolution on Climate Change in Africa, wherein it requested

its Working Group on Extractive Industries and Human Rights Violations in

Africa to undertake an in-depth study on the impact of climate change on

human rights in Africa. This is with a view to contributing to the development

of effective human rights-based measures and solutions.

13 See the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Ontario Climate

Change in Africa: - Adaptation, Mitigation and Governance Challenges

(Special Report), (ed. H Besada and Nelson KS) (2009), at 21-31.

14 See UNEP and Columbia Law School (2015):- Climate Change and

Human Rights Reports Sabin Centre for Climate Change Law (10 December

2015) 1-43.

15 The estimated impact of climate change on the cost of achieving the

MDGs and adaptation needs in Africa, 2010-2020 is 40% higher than the

external financing for the MDGs alone. See S Faukhauser and TG Schemidt

From adaptation to climate resilient development: - the cost of climate proofing

the MDGs in Africa (2010) tables 1 and 2 (Summary). On 30th November 2015

at the COP 21, Global Climate talks in Paris, the World Bank Group unveiled

a new plan of $16bn dollars in funding to help African People and countries

adapt to climate change and build up the continent’s resilience to climate

SDGs FRAMEWORK AS THE BLUEPRINT FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

ACTION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA 161

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