Greenpeace Africa, a regional division of Greenpeace dedicated to promoting environmental protection and climate justice on the African continent, has labelled the financial agreement signed at COP29 as a form of ‘climate colonialism’, after rich countries pledged to pay around 300 billion dollars a year to developing countries for climate action, with a focus on the most vulnerable communities. The environmental organisation considers the amount to be inadequate and an affront to countries already facing the impacts of climate catastrophes.
Fred Njehu, Greenpeace’s pan-African political strategist, said that the rich countries’ proposal is “an insult to all Africans who are already suffering from climate catastrophes”. For him, what was agreed in Baku ‘is not climate finance, it is climate colonialism’. The new climate finance agreement replaces the previous target of 100 billion dollars a year, bringing it to around 300 billion dollars.
Despite the increase in the target, Greenpeace Africa considers the proposal ‘minimal’ and estimates that, in reality, 1.3 trillion dollars in public funding would be needed to meet the needs of the countries most affected by climate change. Njehu lamented that while the African continent faces droughts, floods and famine, ‘rich nations offer them pennies and pocket billions in fossil fuel profits’.
Climate agreement reinforces historical injustices and neo-colonialism
The strategist also criticised the agreement as a ‘masterclass in historical injustice’ that ‘betrays climate justice and makes a mockery of the polluter pays principle’. For him, the nations that have grown rich on fossil fuels over the years are now demanding that developing countries pay for the costs of their actions, in a ‘pocket-changing trick’.
Jasper Inventor, head of the Greenpeace delegation in Baku, also called the agreement ‘woefully inadequate’ and pointed out that the ‘real opponents’ are the ‘fossil fuel merchants’ and the ‘reckless destroyers of nature’ who, he said, hide behind the low climate ambition of governments. ‘Leaders must have the courage to stand on the right side of history,’ Inventor appealed.
Regarding the agreement on carbon emissions trading, Lamfu Yengong, head of Greenpeace Africa’s forest campaign, condemned the carbon market mechanisms as a ‘neo-colonial scheme disguised as climate action’, criticising the way African forests are being turned into carbon deposits to offset the emissions of rich countries, while fossil fuel companies continue their destructive activities. ‘Our forests are our life, not their opportunity for compensation,’ concluded Mr Yengong.
Lusa
