Coming out of a Climate Summit (COP29) with very different assessments, Mozambique was left with several warnings about the increasingly serious risks it faces. The effect of climate change on migration corridors and urbanisation zones are examples of the issues that require action.
These are predictions, but they are serious enough to take action now: climate change is likely to worsen and the consequences are likely to worsen the already complicated humanitarian situation in southern Africa, where Angola and Mozambique are located, warned the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). The warning is contained in the report ‘No Escape: On the Frontlines of Climate, Conflict and Displacement’, officially launched during the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), which took place in November in Baku, Azerbaijan. The document, presented by UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi and refugee and climate activist Grace Dorong, emphasises that southern Africa is experiencing complex population flows caused by forced displacement, voluntary migration and circular mobility patterns.
Climate change, however, ‘is likely to further complicate this dynamic’, which makes the clamour for financial support to deal with the effects of climate change all the more vivid.
Corridors pass through Mozambique
‘The main corridors, such as those from Zimbabwe and Mozambique to South Africa, or from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Zambia, could be the scene of increased tensions as resources become scarcer and population movements increase,’ he explains.
In the context of rural exodus, there is a need for good integration, including into the labour market, through vocational training to improve skills, particularly those of young people
This is the UNHCR’s first climate report and ‘explores the intersection between climate and displacement, the gaps in current climate financing, the future of legal protection for those affected and the need for investment in resilience projects in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.’
Urbanisation in the context of rural exodus
Another expert drew attention to the relationship between meteorological phenomena and migration in the context of COP29. According to researcher Pedro Vicente, climate change is an opportunity to reform public policies on the African continent, specifically in terms of agriculture and urban reorganisation. ‘The African continent is the one that suffers most from climate change, due to poverty and the inability to respond to it, particularly in agriculture, where there are more droughts, and in cities, where there are more extreme events, such as floods,’ explained one of the founders of the NOVAFRICA research centre at the Faculty of Economics of Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
According to Diário Económico(www.diarioeconomico.co.mz) and Lusa, Pedro Vicente said that ‘we need to look at the issue of urbanisation’ and ‘people leaving the rural environment for the cities.’ In the context of rural exodus, there is a need for good integration, including into the labour market, through professional training to improve skills, particularly those of young people.
‘Political motivation is lacking’
‘These measures are related to a set of public policies at city level that some governments are not very orientated towards implementing,’ he warned. The researcher gave the example of Mozambique, where NOVAFRICA has projects, as a case of a country that doesn’t have the ‘political motivation to embrace the issue of urbanisation because it doesn’t want to do it’.
‘Urbanisation [in Mozambique] is happening because people have no alternative, not because it’s a public policy,’ as the government is allegedly more focused on rural development, he explained. Another issue specific to Mozambique is that there are no properties, only concessions, and ‘this is part of a set of public policies that can be changed,’ he said. For example, ‘land is state property and cannot be sold or otherwise alienated, mortgaged or pledged’.
He argues that African governments should draw more attention to the fact that they are being harmed by pollution from other nations and ask for more help.
However, the recent social upheavals in Mozambique should relegate the dossiers to lower priority levels.
Exchanging debt for investment?
Mozambique attended a debate on Portugal’s initiative to swap debt for environmental projects. And it heard the Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe, Patrice Trovoada, admit that the weight of the debt has made it difficult to mitigate climate change in his country, while praising the mechanism. The exchange was in the spotlight at the last COP29. The head of government was referring to an innovative way used by Portugal to agree with Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, in 2023, bilateral debt relief in exchange for climate investments of the same value, involving Portuguese companies, with the agreement signed with Cape Verde providing for 12 million euros and São Tomé and Príncipe for 3.5 million euros.
At the meetings in Baku, representatives of the Angolan and Mozambican delegations also expressed an interest in signing similar protocols with Portugal.
