Demonstrators at the COP27 climate summit on Novmber 15, 2022, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. A new climate financing mechanism for Africa, by Africa could reduce the continent's dependence on the West to deliver on its promises. [Peter Dejong/AP Photo)
Failure can, at times, inspire wins. Just ask Africa.
The recently concluded COP27 global climate talks witnessed the continent triumph over a status quo of consistent failed promises of $100bn in climate financing from rich nations.
The launch of the African Climate Risk Facility – a $14bn local, market-based funding tool to help African countries increase the resilience of their vulnerable communities – is a wake-up call for a world frustrated by the hollow commitments of wealthy countries. The financing is a climate solution designed by Africa, for Africa, to support losses and damage (L&D in climate negotiations jargon) caused by climate change. And it should serve as an example to Asia.
Of course, COP27 did eventually reach a historic agreement to set up an L&D fund. But the developing world is used to hearing big promises that never see the light of day. The $100bn in climate financing was supposed to reach poorer nations by 2020. That year has passed, and the figure has since become irrelevant. Pakistan alone requires more than $30bn to recover from just the direct losses caused by this year’s catastrophic floods.
Why should the new loss and damage fund prove any different? At the moment, it is an empty account. Who will contribute what is yet to be decided. It took the United Nations-sponsored COP process more than a decade and thousands of natural disasters to agree on establishing the fund, so one can only imagine how much loss and damage climate-vulnerable countries will have to bear before the money begins to flow.
There’s another risk too. By establishing an L&D fund while omitting language on phasing out fossil fuels, COP27 has come dangerously close to allowing rich countries to damage the planet as much as they please as long as they promise to pay for it after the fact. READ MORE...
