African countries today expressed their “disappointment” over the negotiations at COP27, arguing that “the developed world”, which “has let generations of Africans suffer”, must “do more”, especially on financing, adaptation and loss and damage.
“The developed world is not doing enough” to tackle global warming – containing the average global temperature increase to less than 1.5°C from pre-industrial levels – and to adapt to the impacts that “Africa is suffering and will continue to suffer”, Zambia’s Green Economy Minister and Chair of the African Group of Negotiators, Collins Nzovu, told a press conference at the UN climate summit (COP27), which brings together more than 190 delegations in the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheikh to collectively address the climate challenge.
“We need support from developed countries and we need it at scale,” insisted Nzovu, who called for greater access to finance to support adaptation on the continent while promoting a “just energy transition”.
In his view, this funding is not being mobilised at the pace required by the challenge.
“We all agree that Africa is not responsible,” he added, pointing out that the least developed countries are responsible for about 4 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, which cause climate change.
However, the continent “is suffering most from the effects” of this problem, he said, with extreme weather events that were evident during the recent floods “in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia or West Africa”.
“We should not play with climate change because human survival depends on it,” Nzovu said, lamenting, “We are going in the wrong direction.”
However, he appreciated the potential of collective action to address global challenges, such as the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic.
“If all parties came together in the same way during covid-19, and spent those billions to ensure human survival, we could do it with the climate crisis,” he maintained.
Senegal’s Environment Minister Alioune Ndoye argued that while Africa’s particular situation has been recognised in the decisions of many climate summits and in scientific reports, “generations of Africans have been left to suffer” the consequences of something they did not cause.
“We are concerned about the lack of agreement on important issues for our group, in particular finance, adaptation and loss and damage,” said Ndoye, who described the outcome of COP27 as “hopeless”.
“We call on all parties to work constructively to reach an agreement to realise and evaluate progress on emissions,” he added.
Adaptation is a matter of survival for Africa, the governors stressed, warning that “the slightest delay in large-scale adaptation action means a setback in hard-won development gains for poverty eradication, food security and sustainable development.”
They also called for “a clear roadmap” to establish a loss and damage mechanism, as well as to provide the UN climate change Santiago Network with “sufficient resources” to “catalyse technical assistance to developing countries”.
The continent, which “has not received the multilateral support needed to address the climate challenge”, now needs access to “higher levels of subsidies and new financing to create agreements that begin to reduce risk and create new types of assets”, Ndoye said.
The commitment for countries to allocate at least $100 billion (€96 billion) a year to the Green Climate Fund “remains unfulfilled”, they warned, urging that this should happen “as soon as possible to restore confidence in multilateral processes”.
Lusa
