What does Africa really want at COP29?

IN BAKU, AZERBAIJAN

Africa is of the view that the world’s biggest climate meeting (COP29), which started on Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan must establish a new $1 trillion climate finance annual target.

The target, the continent believes, will support vulnerable countries and help meet Paris Agreement goals apart from avoiding a climate catastrophe. 

Africa is also pushing for cancellation of climate-related debt that now stands at $45 trillion, and a total phase-out of fossil fuels.

The continent plans to use her climate finances to ensure food sovereignty practices as well as set up quality renewable energy infrastructure.

Despite its low contribution to greenhouse gas emissions – it contributes less than four per cent to global greenhouse gases annually - Africa remains the most vulnerable continent to extreme weather events. It also faces disproportionate burden from adaptation costs.

This also means that vulnerable nations are endlessly caught in a cycle of borrowing to recover from climate disasters, further straining their economies. 

This is why the 2024 UN climate conference has been tasked with forging an agreement to establish a new collective quantified goal (NCQG) that will hopefully provide the needed climate finance for the continent.

“COP 29, referred to as the “Finance COP”, should deliver on NCQG that is based on achieving the goals agreed to in Glasgow, Sharm and Dubai, as well as evolving needs as reflected in countries’ nationally determined contributions, national adaptation plans and other national climate planning and programming instruments, and it should also reflect the global stocktake (GST) outcome. 

“However, the continent is disadvantaged in accessing and attracting international climate finance and global trade, resulting in African countries spending five -15 per cent of their GDP to respond to climate impacts,” Pan African Climate Justice Alliance(PACJA) said in an official statement on Monday while reminding that the new finance goal sets the ambition and parameters for climate action for at least the next decade.

Africa also reminded rich polluting countries that as the continent drowns in debt, climate finance flows are insufficient.   

Loss and damage

While this is so, adaptation as well as loss and damage have been overshadowed by mitigation. 

“Securing an ambitious needs-based NCQG on climate finance in Azerbaijan has been a primary expectation from diverse stakeholders from Africa. This aspiration has been shaped by the struggles of people at the frontline of climate crisis and PACJA’s experience at previous COPs, a majority that have closed without any substantive decision on matters climate finance,” PACJA  added.

The civil society told the global north that climate finance is not about ‘charity or generosity, but responsibility and justice’, and “it is based firmly on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities enshrined in the Paris Agreement and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC), which states that those who contributed most to the climate crisis must bear the brunt of the solution”.

According to PACJA Executive Director Mithika Mwenda, Baku seems cut out to deliver on the climate promise – the much deserved climate finance for advancing the imperatives for just climate action through adaptation, just transition and mitigation.

“This will ensure that women, youth, indigenous people, smallholder farmers, pastoralists, fisher folks, workers and trade unions have the means to implement climate action,” he told Nation, adding that most African countries face an unsustainable debt situation, which is worsened by the general global rise in lending interest rates and exchange rate shifts after the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Mr Mwenda highlighted key demands that Africa has as the world prioritises discussions on how to combat the climate crisis for the next two weeks. 

“Our unrelenting demand that developed countries fulfil their historical responsibility and provide adequate and predictable finance, technology transfer and capacity building to support adaptation, mitigation and loss and damage in Africa is guaranteed,” Mr Mwenda said.

He noted that PACJA’s statement came at a time countries are building momentum towards a new set of nationally determined contributions, yet the continent is not receiving sufficient financial and technical support to effectively implement, track and report on the devastating impacts of the climate crisis.

Mohammed Adow, the founder and director of climate think-tank Powershift Africa, agreed with Mr Mwenda. 

"COP29 is a major opportunity for Africa. For too long, the issue of climate finance for the global south has been kicked down the road by the rich world, but the time has come for their bill to be paid. 

Also read: COP29 begins as African leaders push for climate finance

“This has been called the 'Finance COP' and it provides us with the chance to secure a commitment from developed countries to agree a new, increased finance target, which could see funds flowing into Africa to help us adapt to the impacts of climate change,” Mr Adow told Nation in an interview.  

"This is a chance for African leaders to work together, pool their resources and speak with one voice to hold the polluting countries of the global north accountable. Africa is not alone, we have allies across the globe, but we can speak with a moral authority as the most impacted continent yet least responsible for causing the climate crisis,” he added.

Mr Adow noted that this is the moment for Africa to show its leadership on the global stage and secure a big win for the climat- vulnerable communities across our continent.

 Ambassador Ali Mohamed, Kenya’s special envoy for Climate Change and the African Group of Climate Negotiators chairman, highlighted what he described as the “inescapable reality that the world cannot address the climate crisis without tackling the growing burden of debt”.

“It’s time for the global community to come together, not just to restructure debt, but to recognise that investments in nature and climate resilience are fundamental to long-term economic stability,” he said and observed that their goal is to turn this vicious cycle into a virtuous one, where sustainable investments lead to prosperity and resilience, rather than debt distress.

Last week, a report commissioned by the governments of Kenya, Colombia, France and Germany laid bare the devastating effects of debt burdens for many vulnerable low- income countries.

“But environmental shocks and stresses then constrain economic growth and public revenues, reducing their ability to service debt, and raising the interest rates they face. This then further damages a country’s ability to invest in climate- and nature positive development, and this vicious circle means there is no addressing the climate crisis without addressing the debt crisis,” the Expert Review on Debt, Nature and Climate report explained, while disclosing  how the ‘Debt Sustainability Frameworks’ used by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to assess the affordability of sovereign debt fail to consider the links between debt, climate and nature loss. 

Simon Stiell, executive secretary at UNFCCC, asked: “Do you want your country to become economically uncompetitive? Do you really want even further global instability costing precious life?”

“This crisis is affecting every single individual in the world in one way or another… we must agree on a new global climate finance goal.”

While supporting the ambition to eradicate fossil fuels for good, the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Chairman Tzeporah Berman explained that the treaty is a legally binding mechanism that would complement the Paris Agreement as well as foster and scale up global collaboration to end fossil fuel extraction, wind down existing production, and manage a just transition to renewable energy.   

“Following the historic COP28 agreement to transition away from fossil fuels, confirmed in September this year in the ‘Pact for the Future’ the expectation on all governments, including in Africa, is for parties at this year’s negotiations to not only uphold this commitment but also advance it with a concrete, actionable plan for the transition in order to address the root cause of the climate crisis - fossil fuels,” she said.

Ms Berman is of the view that our very survival hinges on a firm, global commitment to end the era of oil, gas and coal. 

“COP29 represents a pivotal moment to move past rhetoric and drive meaningful change by setting in motion a clear plan for a fair and fully funded global transition to clean, safe renewable sources. This includes substantial climate finance commitments under the NCQG essential for supporting developing countries in the transition, and stronger NDCs that reflect plans for a fair and equitable phase-out of fossil fuels led by historically high emitters,” he noted. 

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