In the face of some nations' foot-dragging tactics, a pan-African front is all the more imperative, writes the chair of the African Group of Negotiators.
A climate crisis unlike anything we have witnessed before is raging across our continent. In recent weeks, we have witnessed horrendous floods, landslides, and crushing heatwaves killing hundreds of our African brothers and sisters and wrecking the livelihoods of thousands.
When representatives from around the world met in Bonn, Germany, for two weeks last month to negotiate how the world will tackle the impacts of these extreme weather events, hope was palpable that progress would be made towards concrete decisions to be adopted at the forthcoming climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan (COP29).
But tactics employed by some parties to shift responsibilities, reinterpret agreed positions, and failure to appreciate the realities of others have continued to perpetuate deep mistrust. This resulted in time-wasting and bickering over sources, types, and beneficiaries of the urgently needed support to address the climate emergency.
The adversarial and foot-dragging methods adopted by some parties hamper the efficiency and effectiveness of climate negotiations. We, Africans, cannot afford these delaying tactics any longer. Our people are suffering.
Our climate finance needs
This year's key issue is climate finance and the mobilisation of lifesaving funds to frontline communities to allow them to adapt to the changing climate. On the agenda is also support for the just transition of economies away from carbon-intensive development pathways to clean, green, and climate-positive growth based on renewable energy.
Considering that our people have contributed minimally to the carbon emissions that have heated the planet and caused climate change, it is deeply unfair that we have to deal with the consequences of adapting to a new way of life. But adaptation is our only hope for survival. We must pursue prosperity that is climate-resilient and carbon-neutral.
The cost of adaptation keeps rising and is estimated to be hundreds of billions of dollars annually. This is the money our governments are forced to divert from the provision of basic services such as healthcare and education. This further shrinks our budgetary allocations for much-needed economic growth and development. These issues fundamentally destabilise our continent and the world.
Meanwhile, our continent requires about $1.3 trillion annually to support vulnerable populations and redress the losses and damages routinely suffered due to climate change. We also need climate finance to fund an extensive energy transition that will turn Africa into a clean energy superpower.
That is why Africa is pushing for adequate and accessible climate finance and a fair and equitable financial system that does not reward emitters and punish non-polluters.
Under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 2015 Paris Agreement, developed countries have an obligation to provide finance to developing countries to adapt and mitigate climate challenges. At COP28 in Dubai last year, a special dialogue on climate finance was one of the outcomes of the first global stocktake under the Paris Agreement. Unfortunately in Bonn, however, much of the disagreement centred on how to proceed on this dialogue that is required to clarify the new climate finance goal.
The path to justice
While our continent has the best wind and solar energy in the world, millions of our people struggle with either limited or complete lack of access to electricity. This is an injustice that must be corrected urgently.
African countries, endowed with abundant resources in untapped renewable energy potential, massive deposits of minerals that are key to the green transition, unused arable land, and natural sinks have immense potential to unlock development.
But the realisation of this potential is constrained by a lack of fair and equitable finances. Why do African countries pay five times as much for borrowing as wealthier nations? Why do we allow perceived risk factors to drive this inequality? This has left us in a chokehold of debt and a vicious cycle of debt servicing that hurts our continent's investment in the green transition.
For Africa therefore, climate negotiations ought to, foremost, tackle these injustices and the intensifying climate impacts that undermine our economic prospects. We must also strongly advocate for adequate support to unlock our continent's massive potential.
It is difficult to conjure up the delivery of climate finance at the scale Africa needs without urgent and widespread reforms of the international financial institutions (IFIs). These reforms are necessary to make these institutions fit for purpose. Only widespread reforms will compel IFIs to prioritise Africa's climate, energy, adaptation, and development needs without perpetuating indebtedness.
At COP29 in November, the world is supposed to agree on a long-term finance Goal - the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). However, the minimal progress made in Bonn is a point of concern. The drawback suggests that all nations must work together while acknowledging the obligations and commitments under the climate agreements.
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To successfully push wealthy nations to honour their pledges, a pan-African united front is imperative and urgent. We must forge a front where we speak with one clear voice. The collective power of a united Africa is the only road to the climate justice that we urgently need.
The good news is that we are not alone in this journey. Our message of climate finance and climate justice is shared by many developing countries and millions of global citizens. We are all united by our demand for the big polluters to stop blocking progress in climate negotiations and instead deliver the finance that will ease the burden of people living in the grip of climate change.
By working together with a common resolve and vision, we could turn the tide at COP29 and celebrate a new commitment to climate finance that keeps the goal of holding global warming to 1.5°C alive and protect those increasingly harmed by climate impacts.
Closing the financing gap in developing countries with significant injections of public funds from the developed world will be essential to achieve the transition and growth required to meet Paris goals and climate justice. It will also deliver the scale of climate action needed by 2030 and then by 2050 for the global net zero goal.
Ali Mohamed is Kenya's Special Climate Envoy and the Chair of the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) on climate change.
