As world leaders deliberate on climate change issues at this year’s COP27 summit in Egypt, President Muhammadu Buhari and other African leaders made a special case for African countries in terms of compensation and assistance to address effects of climate change on the continent. CHINAKA OKORO and ALAO ABIODUN report
As this year’s United Nations climate summit continued yesterday, debates predominantly revolved around what rich and industrialised countries – who are the biggest producers of most of the historical greenhouse gas emissions – owe poorer ones that are both the biggest victims and least prepared for the effects of climate change.
On its part, the African Union set the ball rolling, pushing for what it called the continent’s “special needs and special circumstances” to be a core consideration of the conference’s resolutions. And this was the trend in speeches of African heads of state – all emphasising their countries’ inability to afford the cost of adapting to climate change or mitigating the natural disasters it fuels.
African leaders believe that the continent should have access to funds to enable it to tackle issues of climate change. They have also urged rich nations to effect urgent climate actions to tackle the effects of climate change in Africa. They believe that the continent should have access to funds to enable it to tackle issues of climate change. They have also urged rich nations to effect urgent climate actions to tackle the effects of climate change in Africa.
At the summit, President Muhammadu Buhari called for urgent climate actions from developed countries to tackle the effects of climate change. Buhari, who was represented by the Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi, made the call on the side-lines of COP27. The side-line Clean Energy Transition event organised by Bloomberg Philanthropies and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) provided an opportunity for Nigeria to highlight its climate efforts and concerns.
“Without a doubt, we are at a critical time with respect to the world’s climate future and our actions today and over the next few decades will determine the fate of future generations and the planet. This year, we have witnessed disastrous extreme weather events from terrifying wildfires in the United States to unprecedented heat waves in India, Pakistan, and Europe, to intense floods in my country, Nigeria,” he said.
He, therefore, called for more accelerated actions from developed countries that contribute most of the emissions affecting Africa’s climate. He said Nigeria and other African countries are committed to tackling the climate change crises.
African leaders such as South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, have called for ‘climate justice’ for vulnerable nations. They maintained that rich countries that have produced most of the historical greenhouse gas emissions owe poorer ones that are least prepared for the effects of climate change in terms of making funds available to them to fight the menace.
Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera repeatedly invoked a “clear difference in culpability and capacity” between developed and developing nations, and said the summit was a test of leaders of more powerful nations to “deliver climate justice for the most vulnerable nations.”
On his part, President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana said that the Okavango Delta in his country was running dry, endangering the world’s largest elephant population and imperilling a tourism industry that is essential to the country’s economy. Botswana, like many African nations, faces cycles of drought and flooding that contribute to a growing food crisis and put millions of lives and livelihoods at risk.
Also at the meeting, Nigeria also pushed for $400 billion commitments from developed countries and partners on climate change to finance its Energy Transition Plan (ETP). The Minister of Environment, Abdullahi, said this on the side-line of the annual global event. Abdullahi, who led the Nigeria delegation to the climate change conference, said that the country expected very positive affirmative commitment when it came to funding to mitigate the challenge arising from the climate change effect.
African leaders stated this as a fall-out of the rich nations’ reneging on their $100 billion a year promise at the previous summit in Copenhagen, Denmark 12 years ago. “Poor nations have contributed the least to climate change but are among the most vulnerable to its effects today. They are seeking more financial commitments from rich countries, many of which have grown their economies by burning fossil fuels.”
Again, the World Bank yesterday announced a new multi-partner fund that will pool funding from the global community for projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This is contained in a statement gleaned from its website yesterday in Abuja. According to the statement, funds would also be pooled from donor countries, the private sector and foundations, for scalable pathways to greenhouse gas emission reduction. It said the Scaling Climate Action by Lowering Emissions (SCALE) partnership would provide grants for verifiable emissions reductions and expand the funding sources for global public goods.
The statement quoted the President of the World Bank Group, David Malpass, as saying “climate finance needs major new mechanisms that pool funding from the global community to accomplish actual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions across the developing world.”
African leaders maintained that their countries could not afford the cost of adapting to climate change or mitigating the natural disasters it fuels. Africa is among the worst hit by the effects of climate change in the world currently. A report by Mo Ibrahim Foundation, a public governance think-tank in Africa, revealed that about 40 million additional people in sub-Saharan Africa could be pushed into extreme poverty by 2030 due to climate change. The report highlighted that between 2010 and 2022, the number of people affected by drought amounted to, at least, 172.3 million and that the ones affected by floods amounted to at least 43.0 million.
Scientists and African leaders agree that the continent is crucial to achieving global ambitions on reducing carbon dioxide emissions, in part because of its vast forests, which absorb the planet-warming gas, and its decisions on how to develop its economies, home to the world’s fastest-growing populations. “With her vast land, Africa has the greatest potential to regenerate the world’s climate. Nothing can succeed without Africa,” President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana said.
Africa’s role in decarbonising the planet
Africa can play a pivotal role in contributing to tackling climate change globally by leading the world in limiting emissions, driving climate restoration and orienting Africa towards its strengths, which translate into major new segments of economic opportunity, said Jack Kimani, Founding CEO of the Climate Action Platform for Africa (CAP-A)
Over 75 farmers’ organisations have written an open letter to world leaders about the importance of adaptation funds to ensure food security for the world. It detailed that extreme weather is one of the many factors affecting food security, and that adaptation funds would be crucial to building resilient agriculture. The letter also called for a shift away from industrial agriculture to help reduce emissions.
“Beyond COP27, small-scale producers and the shift to sustainable food production must be a political priority,” the letter reads. Prior to the current COP27 holding in the Egyptian coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh, that of 2021 (COP26) held in Glasgow, Scotland world leaders agreed to commit to saving the world from the harmful effects of climate change. It is expected that the “COP27 will build on the outcomes of COP26 to deliver action on an array of issues critical to tackling the climate emergency.”
In the face of a growing energy crisis, record greenhouse gas concentrations, and increasing extreme environmental disasters, participants at the COP27 will seek to achieve renewed solidarity among countries, especially those in Africa, to deliver on the landmark Paris Agreement, for people and the planet. Environmental experts have posited that “climate change is very likely to affect global, regional, and local food security by disrupting food availability, decreasing access to food, and making utilisation more difficult.”
This it will do by “reducing greenhouse gas emissions, building resilience and adapting to the inevitable impacts of climate change, to delivering on the commitments to finance climate action in developing countries.” At the end of the COP26 summit, countries may demand more money to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.
African continent’s special needs
COP27 is an opportunity to spotlight the African continent’s special needs and circumstances. But while many vulnerable countries, such as small island developing states, are already setting goals and plans to adapt and reduce emissions, they lack access to finance, technology and capacity. Many are struggling with mounting debt.
COP27 is a moment for governments, businesses and investors to come together to confront those obstacles to finance and figure out what needs to change in order to unlock the action on adaptation. Against the backdrop of intensifying economic impacts from floods, droughts and food insecurity across Africa, this year’s UN climate summit will, for the first time, “push the urgent need to adapt, while also cutting emissions, to the forefront of global talks.”
Experts are of the view that COP27 would lead to an enhanced global agenda for action on adaptation, putting it at the forefront of global action.