As the globe gathers for COP28’s first-ever Global Stocktake, Africa demands that the world’s biggest polluters to fund the fallout of their actions.
By Seth Onyango
African nations are intensifying their push for substantial climate finance from the world’s biggest polluters as the 28th edition of the Conference of the Parties (COP) gets underway in Dubai.
As the lowest overall emitter of greenhouse gases, the continent wants to ensure that the Global Stocktake (GST) – a key focus of COP28 – reflects its needs and priorities for climate adaptation, loss and damage, and access to finance and technology.
The GST is a pivotal five-year inventory of progress under the Paris Agreement. Items on the inventory include limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, enhancing adaptation, and mobilising finance.
African delegates will leverage their unique position as the least contributors to global emissions to champion a more equitable distribution of climate resources.
This approach is finding resonance across the halls of the summit, drawing attention to the continent’s dual narrative: as a minimal contributor to a growing climate crisis but at the same time, a major recipient of its impacts.
After enduring a devastating drought, the Horn of Africa is now grappling with floods, causing widespread displacement across countries like Somalia and Kenya – focusing attention on the issues of climate change and warming.
In February, Southern Africa was struck by Cyclone Freddy, the most prolonged tropical storm on record, resulting in the loss of over 1,000 lives.
Central to Africa’s agenda at COP28 is securing adequate funding for climate adaptation and mitigation, especially the US$100 billion to help developing nations, agreed during the Paris conference.
According to the African Group of Negotiators’ (AGN) chief negotiator, Ephraim Shitima, a just transition is crucial as African states seek to decouple their economies from fossils.
The AGN is also calling for a recalibration of climate finance mechanisms, emphasising the urgent need for funds that address the immediate and long-term impacts of climate change in African countries.
This includes infrastructure development, technological support, and capacity building to bolster resilience against climate-induced adversities.
COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber in his opening remarks urged bold decisions on Global Stocktake asserting “we have the power to do something unprecedented.”
“The science has spoken,” Al Jaber told delegates. “It has confirmed the moment is now to find a new road, a road wide enough for all of us, free of the obstacles and detours of the past. That new road starts with a decision on the Global Stocktake, a decision that is ambitious, corrects course and accelerates action to 2030.”
Early spoils
Africa’s push for the Loss and Damage Fund gets a major shot in the arm after states committed millions to activate it. The Fund, which aims to provide financial assistance to countries at extreme risk from climate change, to support mitigation and recovery, was established after intense negotiations at COP27.
A synchronised diplomatic offensive by African states had resulted in the historic deal to set up a kitty compensating states with historically low carbon emission levels for the impacts of climate change. Those include rising sea levels, droughts, floods, and catastrophic weather events.
After the 2022 climate talks in Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt little progress had been made and the issue looked set to become a backwater in climate talks.
In early remarks at the 2023 event in Dubai, however, COP28 President Dr Sultan Al Jaber announced that the United Arab Emirates was committing US$100 million to the Fund to “capitalise and operationalise it.”
That appeared to create a chain reaction, with Germany pledging US$100 million, the UK offering £40 million for the Fund and £20 million for other arrangements, Japan pleding US$10 million and the U.S. committing to US$17.5 million.
“The hard work of many people over many years has been delivered in Dubai” Al Jaber said, adding “the speed at which the world came together, to get this fund operationalized within one year since Parties agreed to it in Sharm El Sheikh is unprecedented.”
Compensation of states for loss and damage emerged as a sticking point at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, as developing nations and their island counterparts refused to back down in their appeal for cash to help mitigate the effects of climate change.
However strong opposition from rich and heavily polluting economies caused the issue to be pushed back a year, to Sharm El-Sheikh, touted as “Africa’s COP”.
On the sidelines of COP27, African leaders intimated that they would not relent until a loss and damage deal was on the table and a payment plan featured in the final resolutions of the talks. They achieved both.
The Loss and Damage Fund will be managed by the Green Climate Fund, an entity under the UNFCCC that finances climate projects in developing countries.
The Fund will also have a board that will oversee its governance, allocation, and disbursement of resources.
The establishment of the Fund is regarded as a breakthrough in global climate negotiations as it acknowledges the responsibility of developed countries – responsible for over a century of significant climate emissions – to help developing countries with far lighter carbon footprints cope with the impacts of climate change.
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