11. African Union

Abstract

The African Union’s activity on environment, energy, and natural resources was not as abundant as in previous years. This slowdown is inevitably due to the prevalence of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the main organs of the African Union (AU) held their regular annual sessions and decided on a number of matters. The AU Assembly had a range of business on its docket, including the launch of business for 2021 and its overall theme. The launching of this ordinary session had given the opportunity to the Assembly to deal with the problems related to the environment. For its part, the Executive Council, which met for two ordinary sessions, also had a rich order of business, which gave rise to a series of decisions. First, the Executive Council handed down a decision on the problem of desertification, drought, and famine, which is causing appalling humanitarian situations on the African continent. In line with this situation, it also took a decision on the AU Commission’s report on the humanitarian situation in Africa. Furthermore, another Executive Council decision underlined the growing problem of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Africa due to natural disasters and the effects of climate change. In this regard, it finally took a decision to encourage member states to build resilience in nutrition and food security in Africa and to maintain a convergence of actions related to the response to these various problems. As for the actions and decisions of the AU Commission, no significant activities on the environment, energy, or natural resources were reported this year. Our report will therefore focus on the activities of the Assembly and the Executive Council.