African countries say richer nations are falling short on climate pledges

Africa is both the setting and a primary focus of the agenda for this year’s United Nations climate summit, with debates predominantly revolving around what 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.

The African Union has pushed for what it calls the continent’s “special needs and special circumstances” to be a core consideration of the conference’s resolutions. And in speeches on Tuesday, African heads of state emphasised that their countries could not afford the cost of adapting to climate change or mitigating the natural disasters it fuels.

The language they used was often stark and accusatory.

President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi 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.”

President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana said that the Okavango Delta in his country was running dry, endangering the world’s largest elephant population and imperiling 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.

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Others reminded leaders of richer nations that their pledges of $100 billion of annual support — funding promised in the 2015 Paris climate accord that would mostly go to countries in Africa — are falling far short.

Most African countries’ promises to reduce emissions depend on receiving that funding. The continent’s biggest emitter, South Africa, reached a deal with European countries and the United States at last year’s climate summit for $8.5 billion in grants and loans to help it transition from coal to renewable energy.

Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, on Tuesday called that funding arrangement a “groundbreaking approach” that could be a template for others. But he also said his government estimated that the total cost of reaching its emissions pledges would amount to $90 trillion,
requiring huge investments from the private sector.

Most of this funding came in the form of loans, which would add to South Africa’s already sizable debt burden, Ramaphosa said. “As we looked more closely at it, we found that only 2.7 per cent was grant money,” he said. Six hundred million people in Africa lack access to electricity. Many African countries hope to develop their energy infrastructure, including by using fossil fuels, but see Western climate agendas as unnecessarily aimed at preventing that possibility by withholding funding and financing.

Some are hopeful that efforts by European leaders to promote gas production in Africa amid an energy crisis driven by Russia’s war in Ukraine will lead to a new wave of gas investments despite the pressure to pivot to renewables.

Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, sought to strike gas production deals with Germany this year, although no deal has been signed. In his speech on Tuesday, he alluded to a desire to achieve economic development, even if it meant using fossil fuels.

Independent analyses project that even if Africa were to burn all of its known gas reserves, its share of historical emissions would rise to just 3.5%, up from the current 3%.

“We cannot accept that our vital interests will be ignored,” Sall said.

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,” President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana said on Tuesday. “Nothing can succeed without Africa.”

A chaotic future

Countries around the world are failing to live up to their commitments to fight climate change, pointing Earth toward a future marked by more intense flooding, wildfires, drought, heat waves and species extinction, according to a recent report by the United Nations.

Just 26 of 193 countries that agreed last year to step up their climate actions have followed through with more ambitious plans. The world’s top two polluters, China and the US, have taken some action but have not pledged more this year, and climate negotiations between the two have been frozen for months.

Without drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the report said, the planet is on track to warm by an average of 2.1 to 2.9 degrees Celsius, compared with preindustrial levels, by 2100.

That is far higher than the goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) set by the landmark Paris agreement in 2015, and it crosses the threshold beyond which scientists say the likelihood of catastrophic climate impacts significantly increases.

With each fraction of a degree of warming, tens of millions more people worldwide would be exposed to life-threatening heat waves, food and water scarcity, and coastal flooding while millions more mammals, insects, birds and plants would disappear.

An analysis by the World Resource Institute, a research organization, has found that current promises by nations would reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by around 7 percent from 2019 levels, even though six times that would be necessary to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius — the level set by the landmark Paris agreement in 2015.

Taryn Fransen, a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute, called the current trajectory of global temperature increase “dangerously high.”

Who will pay for climate change?

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.

At this year’s climate conference, known as COP27, developing countries are expected to press wealthy nations — historically the world’s biggest emitters — to fulfil earlier promises of financial support and push them ever further.

The consequences of global warming are already unfolding, with developing countries often on the front lines of the devastation.

Pakistan experienced catastrophic floods this summer, which scientists said were made worse by climate change. A third of the country was left under water, leaving 1,700 people dead and causing at least $40 billion in economic losses.

Extreme flooding also submerged parts of Nigeria earlier this month, and elsewhere in Africa, record drought has brought millions to the brink of starvation.

Wealthy countries are responsible for half of the world’s emissions since 1850.

Protesters missing at COP27

At past climate talks, tens of thousands of activists have demonstrated to show their anger about climate inaction. But on Tuesday morning, there were fewer than 10 outside the COP27 convention centre, some dressed up as cows.

The activists, who aimed to spread awareness of the benefits of veganism for the planet, said the dearth of protesters in Egypt made their own presence even more important. Some from other activist groups stayed away because of the Egyptian government’s record on human rights and out of concern that laws banning demonstrations in the country would mean that climate marchers could be arrested.

“We don’t have so many activists here, so we really want to take our voice and represent the others as well,” said Sophie Kimmig, 29, dressed in a furry cow outfit even as the Egyptian sunshine beat down.

At past UN climate summits, protests were allowed in and around the main summit venue, but this year they are being restricted to an area two bus rides and a long walk away from the conference center where the event is being held.

There were no protesters in that space on Monday morning — and the vegan activists were breaking the rules by demonstrating directly outside the event.

Egypt’s foreign minister said in September that the government wanted to ensure that protests would not be a disruption to organizations that rent exhibition booths at the conference.

A coalition of climate advocacy groups have called for a boycott of the designated space.

“There is no protest if you don’t disrupt — otherwise it’s just a walk in the park,” Mohamed Adow, the founder of Power Shift Africa, a Kenya-based climate action nonprofit, said on Tuesday. “Protesting in a designated ‘zone’ defeats the purpose.”

Who’s attending, who isn’t?

The list of people attending COP27 in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, reflects the tense mood of a world divided by war and crises.

President Biden will attend, but President Xi Jinping of China, who leads the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, will not.

The leaders of France and Germany will be there. Vladimir V Putin of Russia will not, nor will President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, whose country has been invaded by Russia.

Also sitting this one out are Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada.

And only after intense pressure did Rishi Sunak, Britain’s new prime minister, agree to fit the summit into his schedule. His turnabout came after Boris Johnson, Britain’s former prime minister, announced that he would attend.

About 40,000 people are confirmed to attend the two-week conference, according to organisers.

That figure includes diplomats, activists, about 3,000 journalists, and 120 heads of state and government.

Most world leaders took the stage on Monday or are doing so on Tuesday, but Biden is slated to arrive on Friday, after the midterm elections in the US.

Also expected is Brazil’s president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who unseated President Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing nationalist who has overseen rising deforestation in the Amazon.

Don’t expect too many celebrity sightings. Leonardo DiCaprio, who attended last year’s summit in Glasgow, Scotland, is not scheduled to attend, nor is Greta Thunberg, the Swedish activist.

Do expect to see Vanessa Nakate of Uganda, a climate activist who made a splash last year by directly challenging ministers to live up to their financial promises to vulnerable nations. And, of course, expect to see Al Gore, the environmentalist and former vice president of the United States.