In the first week of the UN climate conference, COP26, there was a series of pledges by national leaders to phase out coal, cut back on carbon as well as promises to curb methane emissions by 30% by 2030 and end deforestation by the same year.
Significantly though, announcements of strategies to help developing countries adapt and respond to droughts, flooding, cyclones, and sea-level rise were not as forthcoming as you would expect.
Now in its final week, the spirit of the summit has dampened not only for attendees who had great expectations but for spectators around the world who never put much faith in it. Even in 2021, developed countries have failed to honor their promises among which collectively provide vulnerable countries $100 billion for climate adaptation.
With only two days left for the COP26 climate summit, conversations around the mobilization of climate finance to developing countries are still as disappointingly vague as ever.
No wonder COP26 has been touted as a publicity stunt cooked up by world leaders who know how to put on a good show. Climate activists the likes of Greta Thunberg, who dismissed the Glasgow summit as a “failure”, are urging richer nations to cut the stories and make good on the many pledges they delivered in the first week of the conference.
After all, if participating countries really mean business, actions should be underway to back up their commitments made before the entire world. Having been hailed as the world’s best last chance to get the climate emergency under control, the outcome of COP26 and what it might mean for the future is indeed frightening.
Donor countries have acknowledged their failure to mobilize the agreed-upon climate finance ($100 billion). Having failed, they expect to reach it in 2022 or 2023, years later than planned.
With the 12-year-old goal out of reach, countries are starting to discuss a new collective finance goal from 2025. However, there is not much agreement on how the money should be spent; the channel through which it should be disbursed; as well as how the money should be used effectively.
You hear news about million dollars funding coming into Africa. The bulk of the finance coming in is spent on building energy projects in the continent. Not to downplay the very importance of energy access, Africa is a continent where millions of people are being ravaged by climate change.
From the droughts in Kenya, Madagascar, the food crisis in Nigeria, the water crisis in Libya, and so forth. Victims of these climate-related disasters are in need of practical and short-term aids that can make life easy for them.
Where is Africa on climate finance?
Back in 2009 at the Copenhagen summit, wealthy nations pledged to support climate change adaptation and mitigation activities in developing countries. To do this, they agreed to provide new and additional finance at the sum of $100bn a year in 2020.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has it that by 2019, the figure had only reached $79.6 billion and, in theory, the target would not be reached until 2023.
In September, a British charitable organization, Oxfam, estimates that wealthy governments will continue to miss the $100 billion goals and reach only $93 billion to $95 billion per year by 2025, based on their current pledges and plans.
Even as the COP26 drags on, rich countries continue to give moving speeches and announce fancy commitments without taking any drastic climate action.
Africa has a bone to pick with developed nations with their lack of commitment to support, “poorer” countries. Apart from being the worst-off victim of worldwide climate change, the continent is expected to be among the most vulnerable regions of the world to heatwaves and crop failures, despite contributing to less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
With so much bleak and gloomy predictions about the future of Africans, we are not asking for handouts as much as we are asking for compensation for damages as a result of the activities of developed countries. Climate change disproportionately affects poor countries, making the already poor poorer.
It is a matter of justice. The climate problem was largely created by Europe, North America, and East Asia; it is expected that those responsible for carbon emissions pay because they contribute to climate events.
In their negotiations at COP26, African nations are calling for at least $1.3 trillion to be mobilized every year from 2025. The jury is out on whether or not developed nations will do ever meet this new demand which is a 13-fold increase compared to the target of $100 billion a year by 2020 that has been delayed.
Speaking on behalf of the group of 77 developing countries and China, Ahmadou Sebory Toure, Guinea’s lead climate negotiator said that “adequate and reliable finance” is a precondition for vulnerable nations to increase their goals.
“We are disappointed that developed countries are not willing to discuss long-term climate finance matters,” Toure said. “A process that focuses on workshops without a clear objective or vague discussions until 2024 is not acceptable,” he added.
During the second week of the COP26 summit, negotiations are still on to determine how to set a goal for the level of climate finance in 2025 and beyond.
The most important fact to remember is that things can no longer go on business as usual. To quote Greta Thunberg, “It should be obvious that we cannot solve the crisis with the same methods that got us into it in the first place.”
