akisawyerr1_ CARL DE SOUZAAFP via Getty Images_freetown

Donner à nos villes les moyens de la santé et de la résilience

Dec 21, 2021 Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr

FREETOWN – Avec la conclusion récente de la conférence des Nations unies sur les changements climatiques de Glasgow (COP26) est venu le temps de passer des paroles aux actes. Mais dans les capitales de la planète, les difficultés administratives et politiques entravent la capacité des pouvoirs publics à répondre avec toute la célérité requise aux urgences de la crise climatique.

Je le sais d’expérience. À Freetown, la capitale de la Sierra Leone, les dirigeants locaux tentent de réagir au changement climatique en aidant la communauté à devenir plus résiliente et en améliorant sa condition sanitaire, or la bureaucratie nationale complique les choses.

Freetown ne contribue qu’à la marge aux émissions mondiales de gaz à effet de serre, mais la ville souhaite néanmoins réduire son empreinte carbone, considérant les conséquences du changement climatique sur la santé de ses résidents. Construire une ville en bonne santé est l’un des quatre grands volets de notre programme Transform Freetown, lancé par le conseil municipal en 2019 afin de préparer notre ville à relever les défis auxquels elle est confrontée.

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Kurt Kristensen Jan 3, 2022

As global climate changes accelerate across the planet, the temptation will be to acquiesce to large, country, regional and globally directed and financed solutions. This temptation should be carefully examined.

In the US we are seeing oil companies acquiring small solar and wind projects, because they have the scale and lobbying power to push through projects quickly. But, local residents are often unable to, or prevented from, examining the complex impact of such large scale green energy projects.

The author states: "Effective climate-change mitigation and adaptation in cities like Freetown requires putting politics aside. Protecting residents from the consequences of global warming – like extreme heat, heavy rain, and increased risk of disease – requires officials at all levels of government to work together to develop and implement creative solutions. Otherwise, our citizens will continue to suffer the most significant effects of a crisis they did little to create." This is an experienced African official reminding us that the up-welling of local initiatives often produces the most robust variety of solutions to any challenge.

We have failed with BIG SOLUTIONS, such as NAFTA, Long-Supply Chains, Huge oil tankers with single hulls, mega-corporations owning entire food supply systems, global pharmaceutical conglomerates forcing on-size-fits all on everyone, everywhere, with WHO and CDC troublesome partnerships with mega-entrepreneurs such as the Gates Foundation.

The author is encouraging us to switch focus, help and encourage local solutions, from Sierra Leone to Italy, Greenland and the US Appalachian.

The non-profit www dot kiva dot com has done an excellent job offering individuals in the developed world the opportunity to directly fund people with good ideas and urgent needs anywhere. Their repayment record is over 90%, which is vastly better than those of Wall Street and the World Bank during the Post WWII era.

Local communities and local, passionate regulators really deserve to be given a chance. BIG SOLUTIONS have only benefited the non-local already too rich shareholders. Perhaps we need to learn to listen better to one another, and only accept funds and help from power brokers and non-local sources when they accept full responsibility for all the long-term consequences.

The author is asking for all of us to listen, and Bless locally driven solutions, everywhere. Perhaps we ought to try that approach for the remainder of this century.
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