Africa

Global community urged to decarbonise their economy. Fossil fuels emit the highest carbon footprint of all fuel types and are considered dirty energy, followed by coal. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, Sep 7 2023 (IPS)

To cool down a burning planet, Africa’s Head of State and Government at the inaugural Africa Climate Summit unveiled the ‘Nairobi Declaration’ as curtains fell on the inaugural Africa Climate Summit held in Nairobi, September 4-6, 2023, under the theme “Driving Green Growth and Climate Finance Solutions for Africa and the World.”

The joint declaration is a unified approach and political leadership on an African vision that simultaneously pursues climate change and development agenda. As climate change pushes an already fragile continent between a rock and a hard place, Africa’s leaders say immediate action is needed.

Included in the declaration is an acknowledgement of the 6th Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2023, stating that the world is not on track to keeping within the 1.5°C limit agreed in Paris and that global emissions must be cut by 45 per cent in this decade.

“The report is particularly important because it highlights the interdependence of climate, ecosystems and biodiversity, and human societies – the value of diverse forms of knowledge, and the close linkages between climate adaptation, mitigation, ecosystem health, human well-being, and sustainable development,” James Njuguna from the Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources tells IPS.

As such, the Nairobi declaration underscores the IPCC confirmation that “Africa is warming faster than the rest of the world and, if unabated, climate change will continue to have adverse impacts on African economies and societies, and hamper growth and wellbeing.”

Against this backdrop, UN Secretary-General António Guterres, while speaking at the Nairobi climate summit, stressed that “an injustice burns at the heart of the climate crisis, and its flame is scorching hopes and possibilities here in Africa. This continent accounts for less than 4 per cent of global emissions. Yet it suffers some of the worst effects of rising global temperatures: extreme heat, ferocious floods, and tens of thousands dead from devastating droughts.”

To push the continent’s climate agenda forward, the declaration identifies several collective actions needed to halt the speed of the ongoing climate crisis and to build climate resilience. African leaders urged the global community to act with speed in reducing emissions and honouring the commitment to provide USD100 billion in annual climate finance, as promised 14 years ago at the Copenhagen conference.

Other actions include accelerating all efforts to reduce emissions to align with goals set forth in the Paris Agreement, upholding commitments to a fair and accelerated process of phasing down coal, and abolishment all fossil fuel subsidies. And swiftly operationalise the Loss and Damage facility agreed at COP27 and accelerate implementation of the African Union Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy and Action Plan (2022-2032).

Reducing dependency on fossil fuels and increasing reliance on renewable energy is an important tool in the fight against climate change. Fossil fuels emit the highest carbon footprint of all fuel types and are considered dirty energy, followed by coal. Africa’s abundance of wind and solar energy can simultaneously meet development and climate change adaptation and mitigation goals.

Mitigation costs for a clean energy transition in Africa are about USD 190 billion per year until 2030. In 2009, during the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15), developed countries committed to a collective goal of mobilizing USD 100 billion per year by 2020 for climate action. As the global community heads to COP28, the pledge is still very much a broken promise.

Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, and South Sudan incurred an estimated USD 7.4 billion of livestock losses due to climate change and yet rich nations paid less than 5 per cent of the USD53.3 billion East Africa needs to confront the climate crisis.

To meet the cost of climate adaptation and mitigation efforts, Africa’s head of state and government are seeking: “New debt relief interventions and instruments to pre-empt debt default – with the ability to extend sovereign debt tenor and include a 10-year grace period. New universal global instruments to collect additional revenue.

“Decisive action on the promotion of inclusive and effective international tax cooperation at the United Nations with the aim to reduce Africa’s loss of USD 27 billion annual corporate tax revenue through profit shifting by at least 50 per cent by 2030 and 75 per cent by 2050.”

Towards pushing the continent’s climate agenda forward, the Nairobi declaration proposes to establish a new financing architecture that is responsive to Africa’s needs, including debt restructuring and relief, including the development of a new Global Climate Finance Charter through the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and COP processes by 2025.

African leaders have yet another critical platform to push the climate agenda forward at the Climate Ambition Summit to be held on September 20, 2023, during the high-level week of the UNGA – as an opportunity for ‘First Movers and Doers’.

‘First Movers and Doers’ is in reference to people and institutions from Government, business, finance, local authorities, and civil society who are already engaged in climate action and can offer pointers into how climate action can be accelerated. Further, the Nairobi declaration will form the basis of negotiations at the COP28 summit as Africa’s common position in global climate change processes.

Actioning the declaration is particularly urgent for the injustice of climate change is such that climate-induced disasters have cornered an already fragile continent, and a most vulnerable African population is in the eye of a deadly storm.

Malawi, Mozambique, and Madagascar were in February and March this year in the crosshairs of the most severe storms in the last 20 years. Deadly floods affected countries such as Chad, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya are experiencing the most severe drought in the last 40 years due to five consecutive rainy seasons. Children in 48 out of 49 African countries assessed by UNICEF are at high or extremely high risk of the impacts of climate change. Children in the Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria, Guinea, Somalia, and Guinea Bissau are the most at risk.

To cushion vulnerable communities against the vagaries of climate change, the declaration seeks to hold rich nations accountable for their contribution to the climate status quo and to therefore reach new global carbon taxes, restructure global climate financial infrastructure and decarbonise the global economy in favour of a green economy.

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Rosina Das used a loan from Accion’s partner Annapurna Finance to keep her grocery store in Odisha, India, open during the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: Accion

By Debdoot Banerjee
MUMBAI, India, Sep 7 2023 (IPS)

Thunderstorms, flash floods, and landslides have made headlines this year’s monsoon season, as rainfall in northern India was far more intense than forecast. This comes hot on the heels of what was for many, the warmest pre-monsoon season on record. These extreme weather patterns are creating chaos for farmers, with smallholders hardest hit.

When the temperature in a wheat field exceeds 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius), seeds start to break down. During last year’s heatwave, some farmers saw their incomes reduce by as much as 50%, as thousands of hectares were affected.

Tailored financial tools – such as heat-indexed insurance, emergency loans that compensate for lost income, and even facilitating relocation to more liveable climates as a last resort – are essential. Although microfinance is widely available in India, few financial services have been tailored to address the climate crisis

As temperatures around the world continue to break records, India is among the most affected. Reports indicate that almost 80% of the country’s 1.4 billion people are vulnerable to climate shocks.

In the context of these rapid onset disasters, new tools are needed to help low-income communities respond and build their resilience. Digital tools and services provided by inclusive fintechs have an important role to play here and will be key to helping communities adapt.

 

Heat insurance, emergency loans key to helping people adapt

In partnership with the Government of India, the country’s financial services sector has a vital role to play in ensuring low-income individuals have the knowledge, financial tools, and resources they need to survive a crisis and adapt to climate change. Doing so will also benefit the economy as a whole, as it is estimated that by 2030, heat stress alone could lead to the loss of 34 million jobs in India, mostly in agriculture and construction.

Tailored financial tools – such as heat-indexed insurance, emergency loans that compensate for lost income, and even facilitating relocation to more liveable climates as a last resort – are essential. Although microfinance is widely available in India, few financial services have been tailored to address the climate crisis.

One pioneering exception comes from the Mahila Housing Trust (MHT) in Ahmedabad. Their research revealed the heavy financial losses suffered by low-income urban women during heat waves and determined that the women would be willing to pay up to $2 per month for a heat-index insurance program with predetermined payouts designed to cover several days of lost income.

The pilot program has already offered insights into the necessary preconditions for such a product, including a clearly defined index and data sources, and a strong local distribution channel. Its lessons can guide the development of similar financial solutions for other low-income groups and climate events, such as floods.

As climate change accelerates, not everyone is able to adapt where they are, and growing numbers of people are being displaced. Digital records of assets, income, and lending histories could be critical to ensuring displaced persons are able to start new businesses and lives elsewhere with climate-sensitive financial tools, such as emergency loans, microloans, and bundled products.

 

Digital delivery increases options for end users

Rosina Das who runs a small grocery shop in Odisha is one of the thousands of Annapurna clients to benefit from an emergency loan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Accion worked with Annapurna to develop the digital emergency loan product as part of a wider program with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth to connect small businesses to the digital economy.

Debdoot Banerjee, Director of Digital Strategy and Transformation with Accion’s Global Advisory Solutions team, based in India

These types of emergency loans can help smallholder farmers and micro businesses survive in the face of climate crises and supply chain disruption. With rapid capital injections, businesses can stay open and continue to benefit the local community during the unpredictability of the monsoon season.

And bundled insurance and loan products like those offered by agricultural insurance company Pula provide smallholder farmers across Africa protection they have never had, as well as incentives to switch to resilient seeds and other measures to protect against climate-related losses in future years.

Finally, continuing to expand access to digital financial platforms is key to building an inclusive financial system and resilience in the context of climate change. Governments and fintech companies can use these platforms and data analytics to identify communities most vulnerable to extreme heat and use this information to target relief efforts, including financial solutions. Residents can access the information on their mobile and smart phones, and for providers, the cost of servicing and acquiring their clients is far lower through digital channels.

To be sure, financial solutions are only one part of the larger changes needed for low-income communities to adapt to climate change.

In the long term, India and all countries must develop a financially inclusive green economy. This takes a comprehensive approach that includes greater investments in renewable energy, the development of climate-resilient infrastructure, and the widescale promotion of sustainable agriculture, aided by digital tools and financial solutions that enable farmers to increase their productivity while playing a vital role in the sustainable management of rural environments.

Policymakers and financial technology developers in India must act swiftly to address both the short-term and long-term solutions. Policymakers’ support could incentivize green financing initiatives, including through subsidizing climate-sensitive financial products for the poor.

Financial technology developers need to collaborate with local communities and organizations to design and implement innovative solutions that cater to the specific needs of low-income individuals in different situations and facing different climate threats.

Unless we find a way for rural farmers and low-income working people to survive today’s climate extremes, there will be no sustainable, prosperous future. And for this, digital financial services designed for the most impacted communities are an indispensable solution.

 

Debdoot Banerjee is the Director, Digital Strategy and Transformation with Accion’s Global Advisory Solutions team, based in India.

 

Rwandan police discovered the crime after the 34-year-old suspect was evicted from his rented home.

The decision follows pressure from regional bloc Eccas and neighbouring countries.

Mali's Momo Sissoko, the nephew of the late Salif Keita, pays tribute to the first African Footballer of the Year.

KlimaSeniorinnen (Climate Seniors) Visit in Athens, Greece. The KlimaSeniorinnen on their visit to Athens, Greece (24-27 of January). They spoke with volunteers and organizations including Greenpeace about the importance of a strong climate movement, its close relation to human rights and how to make the movement stronger.

By Mads Flarup Christensen
AMSTERDAM, Sep 7 2023 (IPS)

Super-charging efforts and setting a fresh direction for the next phase of climate policymaking is what’s urgently needed and on offer this month during the 78th UN General Assembly in New York, as mass heat waves, devastating wildfires, fatal floods, and withering droughts continue to wreak havoc across continents.

These extreme weather events, alongside geopolitical tensions, expose how fundamental it is for the world to have solutions inexplicably based on climate justice, collaboration and international cooperation to address ongoing impacts and to prevent future polycrises.

If we are to live up to the theme of this year’s UNGA debate of “Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity”, we need to stop pitting the urgent fossil fuel phaseout against who should pay for climate impacts around the world. It’s a false choice as we need both, and we need to act for the global common good.

Climate justice means both the end of the era of fossil fuels, through a green just transition, and holding country and corporate polluters responsible, legally and financially, for the harm caused by climate change.

Climate Justice Camp in Lebanon. Led by climate groups across the Middle East and North Africa, youth organisers and mobilisers from almost 100 countries attended the week-long Climate Justice Camp in Lebanon.

The climate justice bill can start to be settled by rich countries making good on their long standing $100 billion per year climate finance promise, and committing to scale up further.

Also, by governments introducing taxes to ensure the fossil fuel industry, and other major polluters, pay for the destruction and harm they have caused. The ‘big five’ oil and gas companies, for a start, had 2022 profits of $200bn.

This more accurate meaning of climate justice is essential and global since climate impacts don’t respect borders. Take the devastating wildfires in Canada in June, when New Yorkers all over the state were enveloped in smog and more than 50 million people were put under air quality alerts across the US.

Or how India, the world’s largest rice exporter, brought in a ban in July on the staple, which dozens of countries especially in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa rely on, furthering food insecurity, hunger and discord.

Political leaders need to look past their country lines and their next election cycle, and act in the interests of the next generation and people on the frontlines of the climate crisis today, instead of the big multinational fossil fuel companies.

Oil, coal and gas are the largest contributors to global climate change and they are undeniably killing us. Recent studies show that nearly 9 million people a year die from inhaling particulates produced by burning fossil fuels.

The toxic politics around the G20 summit are not shaping up to deliver anything useful on climate. This cannot set the tone of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Climate Ambition Summit on September 20th.

Masses of people will be mobilising across the planet, and on the streets of New York, calling for climate justice and solutions that work for us all in the present day, and not untested tech fixes of the faraway.

A straight up climate justice action leaders could take from is how 58% of Ecuadorians voted to keep new oil in the ground in the Amazonian Yasuní National Park, a home to Indigenous communities and highly biodiverse regions. As part of the result, the state-owned Petroecuador has one year to close up shop there.

This monumental vote by the people of Ecuador, somewhat to their government’s dismay, is in stark contrast to the UK government’s tomfoolery in wishing to “max out” the North Sea’s remaining oil and fossil gas reserves to shore up “energy security”. This despite even the World Economic Forum stating in January that “short-term fixes will lead to a bleak future – to achieve energy security and sustainability, the only solution is to accelerate the low-carbon transition.”

Who will be the climate justice leaders at the Climate Ambition Summit remains to be seen, but it is clear to civil society that young people are leading the charge. The end of August saw one of the largest climate justice camps take place in the mountains of Lebanon, where 450 young leaders from the world’s most climate-affected regions co-created strategies and demands that call on leaders to put climate justice at the core of climate policy. They know the science is crystal clear and they demand a livable future.

The moment is upon decision-makers now, especially of the biggest polluting countries, to become climate justice leaders by delivering a fast and fair fossil fuel phase out that is funded and makes polluters pay.

It is the time for the political and corporate elite to act justly, cooperatively and collaboratively to stop us all from boiling.

Mads Flarup Christensen is interim Executive Director of Greenpeace International.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Delegates outside the Climate Action Innovation Hub on the frontlines of the Africa Climate Summit. Credit: Aimable Twahirwa

By Aimable Twahirwa
NAIROBI, Sep 6 2023 (IPS)

A group of young African startups made their presence known at the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, hoping to play a big role in promoting home-grown climate-oriented solutions.

In line with the recently adopted African Union Climate Change and Resilient Development Strategy (2022-2032), experts believe that broad-based ownership and inclusive participation are vital for engaging Africa’s women and young people to showcase their ‘game-changing’ innovations.

According to Dr Yossi Matias, Vice-President of the Google Research initiative, pushing for innovative solutions and research around climate change remains critical for Africa when considering that the continent continues to feel the impacts of global warming in many ways.

“Most solutions promoted by African startups and innovators are in danger of being ignored because of many factors, but there is a way to overcome these challenges,” Yossi told IPS.

Among the solutions put forward by young innovators at the Climate Action Innovation Hub, which took place on the sidelines of the summit, were clean energy, climate-smart agriculture and sustainable land management, biodiversity conservation, water storage and conservation, waste management, and circular economy.

The innovations can also enhance the key cross-cutting areas needed to amplify climate cooperation and action, including climate advocacy, empowerment, awareness raising, capacity building, and climate literacy.

Other key areas of innovation are green transport and climate-resilient infrastructure, resilient, climate-smart cities, digital transformation, and food security.

The latest estimates by the UN agencies show that changing precipitation patterns, rising temperatures, and more extreme weather contributed to mounting food insecurity, poverty, and displacement in Africa.

Official figures show that food insecurity increases by 5–20 percentage points with each flood or drought in sub-Saharan Africa

While African Governments are committed to supporting climate solution innovation to varying levels and with different approaches to tackle this phenomenon, some experts believe that what is needed is to encourage a growing number of African startups to shift in mindset—by becoming providers of solutions to improving the continental climate change resilience.

“What is needed for these young African innovators is to look for mentors and incubators because, as an entrepreneur, you need to learn how to develop a successful product that brings some short-term and long-term positive benefits to combat climate change in your community,” Yossi said.

Through its Accelerator programs, the Google Research initiative currently seeks to empower startups, developers, and nonprofits, especially in Africa, to better solve the world’s biggest challenges — from economic development, diversity, sustainability, and climate change — relying on its technology.

For example, one of the initiatives presented at the summit seeks to produce plastic waste collected from local communities in the Rwandan capital Kigali where a startup is producing handcrafts from plastic waste collected in the city.

Sonia Umulinga, a young Rwandan female entrepreneur and owner of ‘Plastic Craft’, a company that seeks to tackle the problem of plastic pollution, told IPS that key priority had been given not only to help reduce plastic pollution but also to her new business model in using the collected waste to produce unique products on the markets.

Harsen Nyambe Nyambe, Director, Sustainable Environment and Blue Economy, African Union Commission, told delegates that the current situation where the lack of ownership over innovations, coupled with a whole narrative built around imported solutions, constitutes a major challenge for the continent to combat climate change.

“Africa needs to redefine on how to engage of the issue of climate change, and countries need to work together to find possible innovative solutions to the challenges they are facing,” he said.

While some officials and experts cite innovation as an important driver of growth and the fight against hunger and malnutrition, which continue to affect major parts of the African continent, others believe there is a need for these African startup entrepreneurs to test and refine these ideas for the benefit of their community.

Current efforts for Africa’s transformation emphasize switching agriculture from subsistence to commercial, which means producing a surplus for the markets and making agriculture become a business while relying on home-grown innovative ideas.

Prof Lindiwe Sibanda, system Board Chair at the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), pointed out that the startup initiative is critical for the African Agriculture sector to expedite the production of food.

“We should not give up because we need these startup home-grown solutions to help small-scale farmers meet their needs,” she told delegates.

However, some small-scale farmers and pastoralists believe that indigenous innovation also constitutes another driver for innovation in African Agricultural systems considering that climate change impacts are stalling progress towards food security on the continent.

Tumal Orto, a livestock breeds farmer from Marsabit County in Northern Kenya, told IPS that weaving indigenous knowledge with scientific research remains critical.

“Small-scale farmers are also innovators in their own ways using local ingenuity in their practices,” he said.

However, most experts at the innovation hub on the sidelines of the Africa Climate Summit (ACS) in Nairobi were unanimous that more productive and resilient solutions to combat climate change in Africa will still require a major shift in the way various resources are managed.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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The poorest people in some of the least responsible regions for climate change or emissions - like East Africa - are losing their lives and livelihoods to human-induced climate change. Credit: Charles Karis/IPS

By Fati N'Zi-Hassane and Amitabh Behar
NAIROBI, Sep 6 2023 (IPS)

From 2017, Shamso Isac has helplessly witnessed the demise of all her sources of income. Failed rain seasons and dried-up water sources meant a lack of pasture, which led to the death of her livestock. Widespread hunger exacerbated by rising food costs forced her to relocate to Burlhedi internally displaced persons camp in Baidoa in the Southwest state of Somalia. She recalls walking for weeks seeking a place she could get food for her family. When her child asks for something to eat or drink, she has nothing to offer; all she can do is cry, overwhelmed by the utter hopelessness she feels.

The devastating droughts and floods in these four East African countries have also costed the region an estimated $30 billion losses from 2021 to the end of 2023 with Oxfam calculating that approximately $7.4 billion worth of livestock have perished, pushing farmers and pastoralists deeper into poverty

Shamso’s story mirrors that of millions across East Africa and many other parts of the world. Despite contributing a mere 0.1% of global emission, millions are bearing the harshest impact of climate change with over 31.5 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and South Sudan experiencing the worst episode of climate-induced extreme weather, which is fuelling an alarming hunger crisis.

The devastating droughts and floods in these four East African countries have also costed the region an estimated $30 billion losses from 2021 to the end of 2023 with Oxfam calculating that approximately $7.4 billion worth of livestock have perished, pushing farmers and pastoralists deeper into poverty.

Climate change has resulted in the rise of the global temperature by up to 1.2° Celsius making the severity of East Africa’s drought 100 times more likely. The poorest people in some of the least responsible regions for climate change or emissions – like East Africa – are losing their lives and livelihoods to human-induced climate change. Rich industrial countries are responsible for 92% of excess emissions.

Yet, it is the people like those in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan that are facing a multitude of detrimental social, economic and health impacts that are exacerbated by climate change. Small island nations are losing their land to rising oceans and if this trajectory persists, entire countries could disappear under rising sea levels. The climate crisis is a human tragedy and is making existing inequalities and injustices a whole lot worse.

Climate justice demands that those responsible for causing the crisis must be held accountable, and those most affected must get adequate support to adapt to the problems and mitigate them. Why does this matter? It matters because it compels the global community and those primarily responsible for the climate crisis to work with and support those who bear the heaviest burden.

It matters because it addresses a more systemic problem that is the fundamental cause of this crisis and many others. The problem is an economic model that is fossil-dependent and designed to benefit a select few, the super-rich, and that’s causing a planetary crisis and aggravating social injustices around the world.

A fundamental shift is needed to effectively tackle this injustice, without which, extreme weather conditions will recur more frequently and with increasing intensity leading to more hunger and human suffering in the future in countries where people have done the least to contribute to climate change.

As a crucial starting point, the governments of industrialized countries must pay their fair share of climate finance and honour their commitment to provide 0.7% of their Gross National Income to the Global South countries including the $8.74 billion needed to support for the humanitarian response in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan in order to save lives and livelihoods.

To fill this gap, governments in the affluent and in the industrialised nations must ensure companies and the rich are paying their fair share of taxes, not least those profiting from harming the planet. This will enable these countries and communities at the frontline to start building back and build resilience for the next climate shock.

Secondly, the top polluting countries must pay their fair share of the climate finance to East Africa to help its governments scale up their climate mitigation and adaptation so they can help the most impacted communities to recover from climatic shocks. These funds should no longer be in the form of loans but as grants.

Finally, industrialized polluting countries should commit to paying their fair share of the losses and damage suffered by East Africa countries. Estimates show that these polluters owe $8.7 trillion to developing countries, including in Africa. This finance will be crucial to support communities and countries to adapt to climate change, recover from damage and loss and to transition to clean development.

We need to embrace a fundamental, systemic change. Even as we’re saving lives through the humanitarian response, we must also focus on the root causes of the climate change crisis and food insecurity.

Hunger is unacceptable in the 21st century. To witness millions suffering from lack of food in a world of plenty and in a world where billionaire wealth has exploded, is an abomination. The hope side of this doom-and-gloom scenario is that we have the resources in the world to address these challenges. The right leadership and political choices can end hunger. The time to act is now.

 

Fati N’Zi-Hassane is the Oxfam in Africa Director at Oxfam International. Amitabh Behar is the Interim Executive Director at Oxfam International

With presidents onsite, nothing can go wrong. How does the UN Protocol team prepare?. Credit: UN Photo

By Ian Richards
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 6 2023 (IPS)

When heads of state, heads of government and top diplomats from around the globe flock to New York for high-level week beginning September 19, it marks the culmination of many months of intensive preparation for the United Nations Protocol and Liaison Service.

In addition to the general debate of the General Assembly, numerous other events with VIP participation take place at the UN headquarters and at other locations around the city that week. The Secretary-General receives visitors in rapid succession, and the same is true for the Deputy Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly.

“Basically, our team makes sure everyone is at the right place at the right time,” says Beatrix Kania, the Chief of Protocol of the United Nations.

The Protocol and Liaison Service is part of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management of the United Nations. Each September, the normally 12-person strong team is reinforced with volunteers from within the Secretariat and protocol experts from other duty stations around the globe.

While preparations for the General Assembly have been going on throughout the year, in August and September the headquarters start buzzing with coordination meetings for the many different events and walk-throughs with advance delegations from capitals. Flags are steamed and standing arrangement for photo-ops prepared.

To make any event a success, good cooperation across the Secretariat and with the permanent missions to the United Nations is key. “We plan every event to the last detail. But there will always be changes. Your next speaker may be held up in another meeting, a video may not start – and then you have to react quickly and find a solution.

For example, for the General Assembly, we always try to have the next two speakers already backstage in a special area which is called GA 200,” explains Kania.

Since almost all heads of delegations request a meeting with the Secretary-General, bilateral meetings take place on the 27th floor during the General Assembly. There, several VIP holding rooms, a room for a photo op, the meeting room itself as well as offices for the Secretary-General and his team allow for a seamless transition from one encounter to the next.

When VIPs and their delegations are held up or do not make it back to the headquarters in time, another visitor may have to be pulled forward. If this happens, flags need to be exchanged, other media representatives will need to be brought in to capture the photo op, and the internal UN participants in the meeting may be different.

“We maintain contact with the delegations at all times, but the traffic is pretty bad around the UN during High-Level Week. Sometimes, we see the delegation we are waiting for from the windows on the 27th floor, stuck in traffic on First Avenue and unable to come in,” says the Chief of Protocol.

In the run-up to High-Level Week, the protocol team approves thousands of grounds passes for temporary delegates from capitals and registers the members of permanent missions and observer offices – who also traditionally change in summer. Some countries send delegations which are a few hundred members strong for the events in September. Therefore, crowd control becomes an issue as well.

There are a limited number of seats in each room, so each delegation can only bring a limited number of people to each event. In cooperation with the substantive office responsible for an event and the Department for Safety and Security, the Protocol and Liaison Services distributes special access cards for most events.

The most exciting day this year will be 19 September. This is when the General Debate opens at 9 a.m. and the General Assembly Hall will be filled to the last seat. To kick things off there is a welcoming event for Heads of State and Government takes place from 8 a.m. in the ECOSOC chamber and the Northern Delegates’ Lounge.

“We have people at the curb to receive and escort our visitors and people in the room to introduce our guests to the Secretary-General, the Deputy-Secretary-General and the Chef de Cabinet. We also prepare GA 200 and attend to the VIP seating area in the General Assembly Hall,” explains Kania.

Once the meeting starts, the Secretary-General will first present his report on the work of the organization, followed by the President of the General Assembly. Since 1947, Brazil has been the first country to speak at the General Debate, traditionally followed by the President of the United States, the host country.

The opening of the general debate will be framed by two summits: On Monday, the “SDG Summit” will take place, and on Wednesday, the Secretary-General will be announcing a “Climate Ambition Summit”.

Three health-focused meetings on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday as well as a ministerial meeting to prepare the 2024 “Summit for the Future” will bring large numbers of participants to New York this September.

With approximately 14,700 delegates, 2019 saw the highest number of participants so far, but the protocol team expects to reach a new record number in 2023.

Ian Richards is Deputy Editor, UN TODAY

Source: UN TODAY, the official magazine of international civil servants, Geneva

The link to the website: https://untoday.org/

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International Summit Against Human trafficking, July 2023, Washington DC USA Senate.

By Rosi Orozco
ARLINGTON, Virginia, Sep 6 2023 (IPS)

In the years when Mexico did not have a general law against human trafficking, there existed an evil man known as “El Osito” (“The Little Bear”). His alias could mislead those who heard of his criminal record: he was a ruthless pimp, devoid of any trace of kindness in his body, who claimed to collect kidnapped women to exploit their bodies.

“El Osito,” whose real name was Noe Quetzal-Mendez, did not operate alone. Despite having not completed primary education and struggling with reading and writing, he built and established a path of pain between Mexico and the United States. This route began in his hometown of Tenancingo, Tlaxcala, and ended in New York City, United States.

Along these more than 4,000 kilometers, his victims suffered physical, emotional, and sexual violence within safe houses controlled by his criminal organization.

On the Mexican side, “El Osito” paid dirty police officers, human traffickers, and members of the Sinaloa Cartel who provided him with protection and aided in crossing hundreds of victims through Tijuana. He had eyes and ears on the country’s roads and cruelly punished any escape attempts.

On the other side of the border, he had corrupt authorities and a long list of clients eagerly waiting for the teenagers and women he brought to the United States to be raped in exchange for coins.

Areli was one of his victims. Deceived, kidnapped, trafficked, sexually exploited for the benefit of “El Osito’s” criminal organization. She is one of the few Mexican women who survived his reign of terror and has the courage to tell how this man, who was once one of the FBI’s most-wanted criminals, operated.

July 28Th 2023, Washington DC USA Senate.

Legislative panel

Mexican Senator Nancy De La Sierra Arambúro

Congresswomen: Cynthia Lopez Castro, Juanita Guerra Mena, Olimpia Tamara Giron Hernandez, Rosi Orozco Activist.

Her testimony not only calls us to be ashamed of the past but also to reflect on the present and plan for a future without human trafficking: on both sides of the border, we all failed.

Areli never imagined that life without “El Osito” could be as difficult as being in captivity. Once she escaped from his criminal organization, she did not find the necessary support in her own country, such as specialized shelters or emotional support. Her safety in Mexico was not guaranteed either, so she had to seek asylum in the United States out of fear of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Today, she lives in a secret location. Gradually, her wounds are beginning to heal thanks to family members who have taken her in and have not hesitated to lend a helping hand. Despite all the accumulated suffering, Areli is one of the luckier cases because two more survivors of another binational human trafficking gang, Los Melendez, are abandoned by the United States government and need help as victims of this transnational crime.

These other two young women are experiencing a painful reality firsthand: neither in Mexico nor in the United States is there sufficient support from both governments for the victims of this crime that enslaves 50 million people worldwide and generates around 150 billion dollars annually for organized crime.

In the absence of action from the political class, it falls to civil society to step forward and take on a debt with the most vulnerable people on both sides of the border.

That is why on July 27th, a new binational center against human exploitation began, one of the most important agreements of the International Summit Against Human Trafficking 2023 held in Washington D.C.

This historic center is funded by the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and benefits from the expertise of American and Mexican legislators, leaders, activists, specialists, and journalists, who will be guided by the testimonies and knowledge of survivors of this crime.

Among its most urgent tasks are raising awareness in educational institutions, preventing the crime within families, creating new laws, promoting a culture of reporting, decriminalizing victims, and ensuring that exploitative clients are held accountable by the law as active members of human trafficking networks.

In Mexico, ten brave mayors, such as Adrián Rubalcava and Fernando Flores, will spearhead efforts to teach more authorities how to combat these dark businesses. Their experience in fighting this crime will be crucial to ensuring the success of this mission on Mexican soil, led by Nallely Gutiérrez Gijon, president of the Association of Municipalities of Mexico.

This new center joins forces with the movie “Sound of Freedom,” produced by Eduardo Verástegui and starring Jim Caviezel and Mira Sorvino, who have surprised the world by getting involved in this fight beyond just a story about the courage to stand up against human trafficking. Now, it’s time to move from the excitement of the movie theater to taking action in real life.

These are times for the braves. The globalization of organized crime forces us to think about how to safeguard our families beyond the borders of both countries and political rhetoric.

This new center welcomes all people from all backgrounds, colors, and ideas who want to act under a single premise that contains an irrevocable truth: in no country in the world should a victim be abandoned by civil society.

We dare to dream of a world where no human can be for sale.

Rosi Orozco is Activist and Founder Unidos Vs Trata.

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Sep 6 2023 (IPS)

After decades of resistance by rich nations, African governments successfully pushed for the United Nations to lead on international tax cooperation. All developing countries and fair-minded governments must rally behind this initiative.

UN leadership
The official UN Secretary-General’s Report (SGR) was mandated by a UN General Assembly resolution, unusually adopted by consensus in late 2022.

All countries must now work to ensure progress on financing to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and climate justice after major setbacks due to the pandemic, war and illegal sanctions.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Rich countries had blocked an earlier tax cooperation initiative at the Addis Ababa Financing for Development (FfD) summit in mid-2015. With grossly inadequate funding, the SDGs were condemned to a still birth.

The SGR on options to strengthen international tax cooperation is, arguably, the most important recent proposal – remarkably, from a beleaguered and much ignored UN – to enhance FfD for SDG progress.

It proposes three options: a multilateral tax convention, an international tax cooperation framework convention, and an international tax cooperation framework. The first two would be legally binding, while the third would be voluntary in nature.

Eurodad proposal
In response, the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) has made a proposal – supported by the Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ) – noting: “It is time for governments to deliver … [and] … cooperate internationally to put an end to tax havens and ensure that tax systems become fair and effective.

“International tax dodging is costing public budgets hundreds of billions of Euros in lost tax income every year, and we need an urgent, ambitious and truly international response to stop this devastating problem.

“We believe the right instrument for the job is a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation and we call on all governments to support this option…

“For the last half century, the OECD has been leading the international decision-making on international tax rules and the result is an international tax system that is deeply ineffective, complex and full of loopholes, as well as biased in the interest of richer countries and tax havens.

“Furthermore, the OECD process has never been international. Developing countries have not been able to participate on an equal footing, and the negotiations have been deeply opaque and closed to the public.

“We need international tax negotiations to be transparent, fair and lead by a body where all countries participate as equals. The UN is the only place that can deliver that.”

A big step forward?
Strengthening international tax cooperation is expected to be the major issue at the one-day UN High-level FfD Dialogue on 20 September 2023.

A UN resolution on international tax cooperation – for General Assembly debate after September 2023 – should plan a UN-led inter-governmental process. After all, developing such solutions is a key purpose of the multilateral UN.

The Africa Group at the UN had appealed for a Convention on Tax in 2019, to help curb illicit financial outflows. After all, such tax-related flows are international problems, requiring multilateral solutions.

International tax cooperation should be inclusive, effective and fair. The EURODAD-GATJ proposals deserve consideration by all Member States negotiating a UN tax convention. The outcome should include:
• Create an inclusive international tax body. The Convention should create international tax governance arrangements, using a Conference of Parties (CoP) approach, with all countries participating as equals. Currently, international tax rules are decided in various bodies where developing countries never participate as equals.
• Enable an incremental approach to achieve other intergovernmental agreements. The outcome should be a framework convention, with basic structures, commitments and agreements enabling further updating and improvements later.
• Incorporate developing countries’ interests, concerns and needs to achieve tax justice. The Convention should address developing countries’ interests, concerns and needs, replacing current tax standards and rules favouring wealthier nations.
• Enhance international coherence. The Convention should develop a coherent system for all nations, including developing countries. It should eventually replace the plethora of existing bilateral and plurilateral tax treaties and agreements with a coherent overall framework. This should improve effectiveness and cut tax dodging.
• Strengthen international efforts against illicit financial flows, especially involving tax avoidance and evasion, with simpler, more coherent and straightforward rules and standards to improve transparency and cooperation among governments.
• Eliminate transfer pricing. The Convention should eliminate transfer pricing by replacing existing rules enabling such abusive practices.
• Tax transnational corporations globally. Transnational corporations’ consolidated profits should be taxed on a global basis. Tax revenue should be distributed among governments with a minimum effective corporate income tax rate based on a fair and principled agreed formula recognizing developing countries’ contributions as producers.
• End coerced acceptance of biased dispute resolution processes. The Convention should not require countries to accept biased processes, such as binding arbitration, favouring those who can afford costly legal resources. Effective dispute prevention would reduce the need for dispute resolution. Alternative mechanisms for resolving disputes could also be negotiated – using inclusive and transparent decision-making processes – under the Convention.
• Enhance sustainable development and justice. The Convention should promote progressive taxation at national and international levels. It should ensure improved international tax governance supports government commitments and duties, especially relating to the UN Charter and Sustainable Development Goals.
• Improve government accountability. The Convention should ensure transparent and participatory tax decision-making, with governments held accountable to national publics.
• Ensure transparency. The Eurodad proposal emphasizes the ‘ABC of tax transparency’, i.e., Automatic Information Exchange, Beneficial Ownership Transparency, and Country-by-Country reporting.

Actual progress will not come easily, especially after the strong-arm tactics – used by the G-7 group of the biggest rich economies and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – to impose its tax proposals at the expense of developing countries.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Residents say that with Lake Baringo getting bigger they are at greater risk of attack.

Farmer in Lesotho. Credit: Angelo Moleele

By Marianne Buenaventura Goldman and Reitumetse Nkoti Mabula
MASERU, Lesotho , Sep 5 2023 (IPS)

The Role of the New Development Bank in Monitoring Project Impacts on Communities

The 15th BRICS Summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa this month has once again put the spotlight on the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) as a shining example of multilateralism and the New Development Bank’s (NDB)commitment to financing sustainable development projects within BRICS countries and other developing countries. During the 2023 BRICS Summit, the New Development Bank and the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA) signed a 3.2 billion Rands loan agreement for the implementation of Phase Two of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) in Lesotho. This funding complements contributions by other financiers, notably the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).

LHWP is a multi-phased water infrastructure project which involves construction of a number of dams in Lesotho to transfer water to South Africa, while generating hydropower for Lesotho. The entity that is responsible for implementation of LHWP in Lesotho is the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA). The TCTA, a state-owned entity charged with financing bulk raw water infrastructure in South Africa, is responsible for financing and building the LHWP.

News of the signing of this agreement was received with some interest and enthusiasm in many quarters in Lesotho, partly because of the participation of Prime Minister Matekane during the Summit, as an observer, and largely due to the perceived benefits of this loan for Basotho. On the other hand, the news was also viewed with skepticism by civil society organisations working with communities directly affected by LHWP in light of the adverse social, economic, environmental and gender impact which communities continue to experience daily. The truth is, whilst it is laudable and important for both Lesotho and South Africa that the NDB provided this crucial financing for socio-economic development of their peoples, it is equality imperative that this development should not come at a cost to vulnerable and marginalised communities who have been forced to host this project.

The benefits for communities in South Africa are straightforward; according to the media release issued by the NDB on the 21st of August 2023, LHWP Phase II will increase the water yield of the Vaal River Basin by almost 15%, supporting economic growth and livelihoods of approximately 15 million people living in Gauteng Province, including communities in three other provinces which also stand to benefit from increased water supply. However, these benefits are not guaranteed for thousands of people and communities directly affected by this project in Lesotho.

LHWP Phase II has garnered its fair share of criticism and controversy recently, for its operations and impact on the people of Polihali, Mokhotlong. These include heavy handed police intervention against people who rightfully express dissent and protest to some aspects of the project or how it is implemented. There are also complaints about the project’s implementing authority, the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA)’s compensation policy. These include unfair compensation amounts to communities which were based on unilaterally determined compensation rates and periods, non-payment of communal compensation which has prevented communities from developing income generating projects, and lack of developments such as provision of water and sanitation for communities.

Implementation of LHWP requires acquisition of land from local communities; it is estimated that 5,000 hectares of land will be flooded by the Polihali Dam.1 This acquisition of land will result in significant negative impacts on the livelihoods and socio-economic status of the local populations. Communities are going to lose arable land, grazing ranges for livestock which is the main store of wealth for communities in the area, medicinal plants, useful grasses and wild vegetables which form the basis of livelihoods for communities.

Another challenge of the construction of this Dam is the required resettlement and / or relocation of communities. It is currently estimated that 270 households and 21 business enterprises will need to be relocated, mainly due to the impoundment of Polihali reservoir.2 About 12 communities will be relocated, and an additional 5 communities will be required to resettle entirely, a process that will have great economic and socio-economic and cultural implications for generations to come. Regrettably, there is no livelihood restoration strategy that has been developed by the LHDA to ameliorate the plight of these communities or at least no such strategy has been shared and/or discussed with communities and their representatives.

Negative gender impacts have also been noted; women within LHWP Phase II project area are already marginalised because of cultural stereotypes and practices which prevent them from owning land. The LHWP Phase II Compensation Policy has only served to solidify and exacerbate the problem of gender inequality through its gender biased payout of compensation procedure which deprives women of compensation for land previously managed or shared. This increases their economic vulnerability and susceptibility to gender-based violence. In fact, there have been concerning news reports in recent months, of increasing number of gender-based violence cases including teenage pregnancies and girl-child school dropouts, sex work/transactional sex, sexual violation especially of young girls, and increased HIV infection prevalence. These have been linked directly to the influx of immigrant contractors and labour workers who have come to work on the LHWP, continuing a trend which was first observed during implementation of the previous phases of this project. It is worrying to note, that at this point in the of implementation LHWP Phase II, there is still no gender policy, and the implementing authority still insists on turning a blind eye to the vulnerability of women as a result of this project.

The news of the NDB providing a loan for Phase 2 of the LHWP, totaling an amount of 3.2 billion Rands (US $ 171.5 million) raises further questions on the NDB’s policies and practices concerning transparency, accountability and its environmental and social safeguards, including gender. The NDB has indicated its plans to further strengthen gender mainstreaming in all its projects in its second five year General Strategy (2022-2027). As called by BRICS civil society organisations since the start of NDB operations, the NDB needs to urgently put in place a gender policy, with support of gender specialists at the NDB to oversee that gender is integrated in all aspects of its projects, in strong partnerships with its clients such as the TCTA and the LHDA.

All eyes are on the former Brazil President, Dilma Rousseff, new President of the NDB on her ability to transform the NDB from a multilateral development bank whose track record appears to be gender neutral towards one can proactively empower women and delivering on gender equality as part of New General Strategy and operations. In a recent statement, Rousseff explained that a priority of the NDB will be to “…promote social inclusion at every opportunity we have. The NDB needs to support projects that help to reduce inequalities and that improve the standard of living of the vast communities of the poor and excluded in our countries.”

The NDB has now grown beyond the BRICS countries, and recently included new member countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Egypt and Uruguay and has greater aspirations to add many more countries. Given the NDB’s expansion, it is critical that the NDB begin to live its vision of being an accountable institution for the South, by the South. The NDB should urgently put into practice its policies such as on Information Disclosure. By doing so, the NDB will enable communities to access information on projects that directly affect their lives and livelihoods. The NDB also needs to work more closely with its clients to follow through on the NDB guidelines provided in its Environmental and Social Framework. The Civil Society Forum of the NDB (South Africa / Africa), including Lesotho community-based organisations calls on the NDB to learn from past mistakes experienced during the implementation of Phase 1 of the LHWP. During Phase II of the project, the NDB and other development finance institutions such as the DBSA and AfDB should ensure that the LHDA convenes effective and timely community consultations, provide basic services such as clean water, and ensure adequate and fair compensation to all affected communities – especially women who have in the past been left behind.

During the 2023 BRICS Summit, which took place on 22-24 August, Minister Naledi Pandor of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation underscored the need for the NDB to do outreach at the local level in terms of sharing information on the projects the NDB funds, including vital project information, including the $3 billion the NDB plans to invest in South Africa. All eyes are now on South Africa and Brazil with leadership from NDB President Rousseff and Minister Pandor to push for stronger and more inclusive development outcomes of the NDB, with women front and centre of all future NDB projects.

The LHWP Phase II is an example of the challenges faced by communities affected by large infrastructure projects with funding from Public Development Banks (PDBs) such as the NDB, AfDB and the DBSA. As the hundreds of PDBs convene at the 4th Finance in Common Summit (FICS) in Cartegena, Colombia on 4-6 September to join forces to transform the financial system towards climate and sustainability, it will be important that PDBs transform their models to be more effective in promoting positive development outcomes for communities. PDBs have been advocating to increase volumes of finance for development. Civil society across the globe are in solidarity, making their voices heard at the FICS expressing concerns that limited attention is being given to the need to shift the quality of that finance to ensure it does not exacerbate the current crises and to ensure it shifts the power in decision making. Such attention is even more needed as the current financial architecture hinders the ability of governments to protect people and the planet.

1 https://www.lhda.org.ls : accessed on the 11th July 2023
2 Ibid

Marianne Buenaventura Goldman is co-Chair, Civil Society Forum of the NDB (Africa) & Project Coordinator, Forus
Reitumetse Nkoti Mabula is Executive Director, Seinoli Legal Centre

IPS UN Bureau

 

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This goat died of starvation while surrounded by an inedible invasive plant. Lives hang in the balance as Kenya’s dryland is ravaged by a severe prolonged drought. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, Sep 5 2023 (IPS)

As thousands convene in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, for the Africa Climate Summit, the first time the African Union has summoned its leaders to solely discuss climate change under the theme ‘Driving Green Growth and Climate Finance Solutions for Africa and the World’, the backdrop is a country on the frontlines of a climate crisis.

The severe, sharp effects of climate change are piercing the very heart of an economy propped up by rainfed agriculture and tourism – sectors highly susceptible to climate change. After five consecutive failed rainy seasons, more than 6.4 million people in Kenya, among them 602,000 refugees, need humanitarian assistance – representing a 35 per cent increase from 2022.

It is the highest number of people in need of aid in more than ten years, says Ann Rose Achieng, a Nairobi-based climate activist. She tells IPS that Kenya is hurtling full speed towards a national disaster in food security as “at least 677,900 children and 138,800 pregnant and breastfeeding women in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid regions alone are facing acute malnutrition. Nearly 70 per cent of our wildlife was lost in the last 30 years.”

Despite Kenya contributing less than 0.1 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions per year, the country’s pursuit of a low carbon and resilient green development pathway produced a most ambitious Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to cut greenhouse gasses by 32 per cent by 2030 in line with the Paris Agreement.

But as is the case across Africa, there are no funds to actualise these lofty ambitions. Africa needs approximately USD 579.2 billion in adaptation finance over the period 2020 to 2030, and yet the current adaptation flows to the continent are five to ten times below estimated needs. Globally, the estimated gap for adaptation in developing countries is expected to rise to USD 340 billion per year by 2030 and up to USD 565 billion by 2050, while the mitigation gap is at USD 850 billion per year by 2030.

After five consecutive failed rainy seasons, food insecurity is expected to escalate as maize crop has failed to flourish due to erratic weather patterns. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

As dams and rivers dry up, Kenya will continue to be on the frontlines of a climate crisis unless climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts are escalated. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

Frederick Kwame Kumah, Vice President of Global Leadership African Wildlife Foundation, tells IPS a big part of the problem is Africa’s burgeoning gross public debt which increased from 36 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 71.4 per cent of GDP between 2010 and 2020 – a drag on its development progress and a disincentive for climate finance flows.

“There is a concern that climate finance, if and when provided, will be used to first service Africa’s debt burden. The first step to addressing Africa’s Climate Finance must be action towards debt relief for Africa. Freeing up debt servicing arrangements will release resources for continued development and climate finance purposes,” Kumah explains.

He says there is an urgent need to challenge the existing unfair paradigm for financing by developing countries. It is very expensive for developing countries to borrow for development purposes. Africa must then leverage its natural capital towards seeking innovative financing mechanisms such as green bonds and carbon credits to address its development and climate change challenges.

Nearly half, 23 out of 47 counties in Kenya, are classified as arid and semi-arid. Livelihoods are at risk as pastoralists are unable to cope with drastic weather changes. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

This waterfall is on the verge of drying up. Kenya’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism and agriculture. The two sectors are highly susceptible to climate change. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

“Climate finance was, as expected, a key part of COP27. It is a grave concern for Africa that developed countries’ commitment to provide $100 billion annually has yet to be met, even though the need for finance is becoming increasingly obvious. In COP27, we noted that new climate finance pledges were more limited than expected. Countries such as those in Africa are still waiting for previous pledges to be fulfilled,” says Luther Bois Anukur, Regional Director, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature).

Meanwhile, Anukur tells IPS negotiations on important agenda items, most notably the new finance target for 2025, stalled. In COP27, Parties concentrated on procedural issues – deferring important decisions about the amount, timeframe, sources, and accountability mechanisms that may be relevant to a new finance goal in the future. African countries and many other vulnerable countries are in the fight for our lives, and sadly they are losing.

Anukur stresses that Africa’s natural resources are depleted, eroded, and biodiversity lost due to extreme effects of climate change leading to loss of lives and ecosystem services and damage to infrastructure at an alarming rate. Yet climate finance pledges have not materialised. The Africa Climate Summit should be the platform for Africa and developing partners to address existing finance gaps with clear programmatic and project approaches.

Africa must use the Summit to assess and prepare their position for the COP28 in the United Arab Emirates towards strengthening partnerships for the delivery of desired climate finance. Kumah adds that the principle of equal but differentiated responsibilities of nations must be adhered to for climate justice and to enable developing countries, who are least responsible for the effects of climate, to have much-needed resources to cope and adapt to biodiversity loss and climate change.

“In that respect, the creation of a dedicated funding mechanism to address loss and damage and another for adaptation and mitigation to redress historical and continued inequities in contributions towards biodiversity loss and climate change. We must rethink how private investments can be reshaped and harnessed for the benefit of biodiversity and climate action,” Kumah expounds.

“Private investments can be scaled through green bonds, carbon markets, sustainable agricultural, forestry and other productive sector supply chains.  Transformative financing architecture is necessary at the domestic and international levels to bring the private and public sectors together to secure the critical backbone of Africa’s natural infrastructure.”

Climate finance gap. Graphic: Joyce Chimbi & Cecilia Russell

While developing countries submitted revised and ambitious National Adaptation Plans and NDCs as requested, Anukur says complicated processes to access financing for their climate actions persist. Stressing the need for reforming the international financial architecture, starting with multilateral development banks.

“The 2023 Summit for New Global Financing Pact held in Paris committed to a coalition of 16 philanthropic organizations to mobilize investment and support UN’s SDG priorities by unlocking new investment for climate action in low- and middle-income countries while reducing poverty and inequality,” Anukur observes.

Civil society organizations and activists such as Achieng have expressed concerns that such announcements are insufficient considering the scale of the challenges facing planet Earth. The Summit will have failed if the global financial architecture is not overhauled in line with the needs of the African continent, she says.

Anukur says the Summit must therefore propel Africa to new heights of climate financing to help reduce Africa’s vulnerability to climate change and increase its resilience and adaptive capacity in line with the Global Goal on Adaptation. Ultimately expressing optimism that the opportunity to unlock the potential of climate financing – breaking the shackles of debt and building a climate-resilient and prosperous Africa is, at last, in sight.

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Excerpt:

Africa needs approximately USD 579.2 billion in adaptation finance over the period 2020 to 2030, and yet the current adaptation flows are five to 10 times below estimated needs.
 

African Parks plans a decade-long rewilding project to help preserve a near-threatened subspecies.