African environmental advocates have called for adoption of nature-based solutions to halt depletion of vital ecosystems in the continent.

In a statement released from Nairobi on Thursday during the African major groups and stakeholders' virtual meeting, the environmental advocates urged leaders to support ambitious, accelerated and transformative actions to deliver solutions to climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. 

"Set the pace in the context of sustainable development, by driving African climate action towards pursuing and achieving a world on a pathway of resilience, transition to low carbon and carbon neutral economies," the environmental advocates said.

The environmental advocates called for the strengthening of multilevel, regional and national environmental governance in Africa for climate action. 

They recommended that governments invest in enhanced institutional capacity building, development of integrated policy instruments and free movement of technological innovation. 

"Climate change remains a key challenge to sustainable development in Africa and that distribution of impacts disproportionately affects Africa due to uneven distribution of physical climate change hazards, exposure or vulnerability," they added. 

The environmental advocates suggested that a plan be developed in the continent to explore and utilize green economy pathways, increasing resource efficiency, environmentally sound business models and sustainable finance to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while adapting to climate change in line with the Paris Agreement.

They observed that extreme weather events such as heatwaves, heavy rain, drought, wildfires and coastal flooding events had negative impacts to human health, livelihoods and human rights. 

The advocates urged African Ministers of Environment (AMCEN) that are due to meet next week virtually, to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation and loss of ecosystems and species through the promotion of conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

They called for fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge in the countries in order to contribute to the achievements of international agreements.