Africa

Greg Puley, Head of the Climate Team at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at COP29. Credit: OCHA

By Umar Manzoor Shah
BAKU, Nov 22 2024 (IPS)

As climate-induced disasters continue to wreak havoc worldwide, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a UN body specializing in emergency response, has issued a clarion call for an ambitious and fair global climate finance goal at COP29. Greg Puley, Head of the Climate Team at OCHA, highlighted the pressing need for enhanced disaster risk reduction and climate resilience measures, particularly in vulnerable and conflict-affected regions.

Speaking to IPS during COP29 at Baku, Puley stressed the dramatic rise in climate-related emergencies, which have escalated the burden on global humanitarian systems. “This year alone, we witnessed devastating floods in the Sahel, extreme heatwaves in Asia and Latin America, and drought in Southern Africa,” Puley said. He also pointed out the earliest recorded Category 5 storm in the Caribbean, stating that climate disasters are becoming increasingly severe and frequent.

OCHA has made an appeal for USD 49 billion in international humanitarian aid this year amid the growing scale of the crisis. However, funding has not kept pace with rising needs. Puley lamented the slow progress in implementing climate finance commitments made at past COP summits, calling for urgent action to translate pledges into tangible benefits on the ground.

“While there have been initiatives like the Secretary General’s Early Warnings for All, which aims to provide global early warning coverage by 2027, these efforts are underfunded,” Puley said. He said that conflict-affected areas receive minimal climate finance, leaving the most vulnerable populations behind. “These are the people least responsible for the climate crisis, yet they bear the brunt of its impacts,” he said.

Priorities for COP29

With COP29 concluding, Puley said without robust financial support for developing countries, achieving urgent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and meeting the 1.5-degree Celsius target would be impossible. He warned that surpassing this threshold would exacerbate climate-induced disasters, further straining humanitarian systems. “

Also, increased investments in climate adaptation and resilience are crucial, particularly for disaster-prone regions. Puley argued that without these measures, progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) would be derailed as communities repeatedly face setbacks from extreme weather events,” he said.

According to him, there is a need to correct the imbalance in climate finance allocation. He called for targeted investments in areas with high humanitarian needs to build resilience against climate shocks.

While Puley expressed optimism about COP29 delivering on climate finance goals, he acknowledged the challenges ahead. “We have high hopes, but it’s clear that much more needs to be done to ensure that the world’s most vulnerable populations are not left behind,” he said.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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A selection of the week's best photos from across the African continent and beyond.

A selection of the week's best photos from across the African continent and beyond.

A selection of the week's best photos from across the African continent and beyond.

The mental health impacts of climate change are not widely discussed, but increasing evidence shows how climate change is affecting mental health and raising the risk of new mental health challenges. Experts say that existing systems are not equipped to cope with the current and additional challenges related to health and mental health caused by […]

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, an adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh and Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Credit: X

By Umar Manzoor Shah
BAKU, Nov 22 2024 (IPS)

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, an adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh and as Minister of Environment, Forestry, and Climate Change, urged the global and regional leaders to prioritize ambitious, evidence-based climate targets in the climate negotiations.

Hasan, in an exclusive interview with IPS at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, speaks in detail about Bangladesh’s efforts to address plastic pollution, empower women in climate action, and foster regional cooperation in South Asia while calling out global gaps in climate ambition.

COP29: Ambition and Disparities

On COP29’s progress, Hasan criticized the widening gap between scientific evidence and global climate action.

“Least developed and vulnerable countries base their demands on science. Yet, major polluters deny this evidence, sticking to exploitative fossil-fuel-based models,” she said.

Hasan also pointed out inconsistencies in proposed solutions. “The draft text on New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) funding talks about ‘innovative solutions,’ but why focus on unproven methods like market-based carbon trading when established solutions exist?”

While acknowledging the importance of participating in COP negotiations, Hasan expressed concern that global ambition is regressing.

“The last three years have seen us moving away from desired results. Countries must act on science-based targets to prevent catastrophic outcomes.”

“Maybe five years down the road, what we are saying will be said by the developed countries. Because of what Spain has faced today, if more and more European countries and American states start facing those sorts of calamities, then the stance of the developed countries may change,” she added.

Regional Cooperation in South Asia

Addressing the shared climate challenges in South Asia, Hasan stressed the need for collaboration in disaster management, water sharing, and renewable energy.

“South Asia has vast potential for regional cooperation, but political mistrust hinders progress. We need to move away from a ‘big brother-little brother’ dynamic and establish partnerships based on equality and trust,” Hasan said.

She proposed creating a regional energy grid leveraging Nepal and Bhutan’s hydroelectric potential, reducing reliance on coal and gas. Other areas of collaboration include agriculture, forestry, and transboundary early warning systems.

However, Hasan acknowledged the roadblocks.

“There are good models in South Asia that are being taught even in universities like Oxford. But we South Asian countries are reluctant to take lessons from these good practices. The thing is, you need to first build trust among the South Asian countries. We don’t need a big brother or a big sister in the region. We need friends. When you have a big brother and a small brother, they always fight.”

The Minister added: “A big fish would always like to eat up a small fish. But here we have to prove that we are on equal footing and that we are friends and not brothers and sisters. Once we set that political context and we do that trust-building process among the South Asian countries, I think there is huge potential in both adaptation, mitigation, loss, and damage. We can do early warning for disaster management and minimize the impacts of disasters. We can cooperate in the sector of agriculture.”

Hasan urged the global and regional leaders to prioritize ambitious, evidence-based climate targets. She stressed that countries like Bangladesh, which bear the brunt of climate impacts despite minimal contributions to emissions, need urgent support.

“Bangladesh remains committed to leading by example, from phasing out plastics to empowering women and fostering regional partnerships. But global action must match the scale of the crisis,” Hasan said.

Tackling Plastic Pollution: Reviving The 2002 Ban

Bangladesh made history in 2002 by becoming the first country to impose a ban on the manufacturing, selling, and use of polythene and plastic shopping bags. Yet Hasan acknowledges that enforcing the ban has been inconsistent over the past two decades.

“Between 2004 and 2006, we successfully removed polythene bags from markets,” Hasan explained. “However, enforcement efforts waned after a government change. Over the years, usage has resurged, making it an even bigger challenge today.”

The government is now reinitiating enforcement, starting with regulating plastic bag use in supermalls in Dhaka before expanding to other urban centers and eventually rural areas. Environmental groups are also campaigning in remote parts of the country to support the initiative.

Hasan said that efforts are being made to target polythene shopping bags first, with a broader plan to phase out all single-use plastics. “We aim to develop an action plan to transition from single-use plastics, except for items like ballpoint pens, where alternatives are not yet readily available. This will be implemented over two to three years.”

While concerns about the livelihood impact of such bans arise, Hasan dispelled misconceptions. “Producers of polythene shopping bags also manufacture other plastic products. They can pivot to legal alternatives, and we’re introducing sustainable options like jute and cotton bags in the market,” she said.

Women’s Role in Climate Mitigation

Hasan highlighted the significant yet underappreciated role of Bangladeshi women in climate resilience and sustainable development. She recounted how women-led seed banks became crucial during recent floods, supplying communities and the government with much-needed resources.

“Women in Bangladesh have preserved seed banks for decades. Scaling up this model can create decentralised, community-driven solutions,” Hasan said.

In terms of lifestyle changes and sustainable agriculture, women play a pivotal role. “Mothers transmit values to children, shaping habits like water conservation and reducing waste. Women farmers also prioritize safe, pesticide-free food for their families, making them key drivers of eco-friendly practices,” she said.

Hasan said that the government aims to integrate indigenous women’s knowledge into its policies on nature protection and food security.

Using Public Interest Litigations (PILs) for Climate and Women’s Rights

As a pioneer in using public interest litigations for environmental justice, Hasan discussed the potential of PILs in addressing women’s climate vulnerabilities.

“PILs come into play after setting the right policy and legal framework. For example, water and food security laws must reflect women’s unique needs. If these are ignored, PILs can hold the system accountable,” Hasan said.

She said there is a need for gender-sensitive climate policies to ensure women are protected and empowered in the face of escalating climate impacts.

“You have to first set the policies and the laws in the right direction. And if the policies and the laws are not respected, then you take the PILs.”

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The 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is scheduled to conclude 22 November 2024. Credit: United Nations Department of Global Communications

By Abdoulaye Diallo
DAKAR, Senegal, Nov 21 2024 (IPS)

At the UN climate change conference in Baku (COP29), government officials are scrambling for an agreement on a new climate financial package. There is a well established consensus that the climate crisis is exacerbating the hardships of vulnerable communities around the world. The question now is who’s going to pay for the staggering costs?

A small tax on just seven of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies could grow the UN Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage by more than 2000%, as shown in an analysis by environmental organisations Greenpeace International and Stamp Out Poverty. Taxing last year’s revenues of major oil companies could help cover the costs of some of this year’s worst weather events attributed to climate change.

Taxing ExxonMobil’s 2023 extraction could pay for half the cost of Hurricane Beryl, which ravaged large parts of the Caribbean, Mexico and the USA. Taxing Shell’s 2023 extraction could cover much of Typhoon Carina’s damages, one of the worst that the Philippines experienced this year. Taxing TotalEnergies’ 2023 extraction could cover over 30 times Kenya’s 2024 floods.

A Climate Damages Tax (CDT) could deliver desperately needed resources for communities and authorities who are on the front lines of the climate crisis, made worse by dirty energy companies. Companies which, together, earned almost US$150 billion last year.

So, what could a long term tax on fossil fuel extraction, combined with taxes on excess profits and other levies, deliver? A climate damages tax imposed across wealthy OECD countries, increasing annually by US$5 per tonne of CO2-equivalent based on the volumes of oil and gas extracted, could play an essential role in financing climate action.

It could raise an estimated US$900 billion by 2030 to support governments and communities around the world as they face growing climate impacts.

Who should pay? This is fundamentally an issue of climate justice and it is time to shift the financial burden for the climate crisis from its victims to those responsible for it. There is an urgent need for innovative solutions to raise the funds to meet the challenge posed by climate loss and damage. Governments worldwide must adopt the climate damages tax and other mechanisms to extract revenue from the oil and gas industry.

The data clearly shows Big Oil’s complicity in the crisis we’re in, but to truly deliver climate justice the numbers are never enough.

That’s why our call to make climate polluters pay comes at the conclusion of three weeks of protests, in which survivors of floods and other extreme weather events have stood with Greenpeace activists. Together, activists delivered to offices of dirty energy companies (e.g, TotalEnergies, Eni, Equinor, OMV) containers full of broken toys and family photos, furniture, appliances, and other remnants of personal and communal tragedy, which became far worse because of Big Oil’s ever growing production of oil and gas.

For governments to finally force climate polluters to stop drilling and start paying, we should all raise our voice.

Abdoulaye Diallo is Co-Head of Greenpeace International’s Stop Drilling Start Paying project

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The point of finding a partner is to achieve your strategic goals and ensure the sustainability of your organisation while contributing to another organisation. Credit: Pexels

By Angela Umoru-David
ABUJA, Nov 21 2024 (IPS)

It is an already established truth that building partnerships is one of the single most effective ways for African non-profits to attract funding and deepen their impact. So, as an addendum to this article by Tafadzwa and I, here is a guide to finding your match.

Indeed, choosing an organisation to collaborate with can be similar to deciding on a life partner. It does not require the same life commitment but a wrong partnership can significantly hurt your reputation with donors, the trust you have from the community(ies) and even the faith your team members have in you. In some situations, the consequences are not so dire. Perhaps, it may only sidetrack you, forcing you to forge into areas you probably did not intend, and making you lose time or put years of hard work at risk.

So, in broad strokes, how can you find the right partner for your work as an African civil society organisation (CSO) or nonprofit?

1. Put your House in Order: Organisations are often judged on the strength of their corporate governance. While the size of an organisation may influence how robust its processes and procedures are, what is paramount is that irrespective of the size, there is a system and culture of accountability and transparency. The most solid path towards establishing broad community partnerships that ensure long-term grassroots support revolve around legitimacy and structure, as evidenced in your policies, leadership composition, accountability measures and organisational culture. This may seem like an obvious point but African non-profits often start informally as a small initiative to address a problem in the community. Over time, that small initiative morphs into a registered non-governmental organisation, whose leadership is made up of close friends and family members. Even if this works to get the organisation operational, it does not work in the long term. At the barest minimum, every nonprofit should have a diverse and functional board of directors/trustees, well-articulated vision, values and objectives, strategic goals and action plans. These benchmarks help you streamline what kind of partner(s) you need, when you should approach them and how you want to collaborate with them.
2. Be Willing to Collaborate, not Compete: For too long, the funding pool in Africa has pit nonprofits against one another. However, to tap the benefits of partnerships, organisations must be willing to call a truce, and work together in an open, honest relationship. Yet, with so much distrust already being the marker of the nonprofit space, how do we move forward? It really begins with having a different mindset. If more organisations adopt the idea that collaboration, and not competition is the way forward then we will have made considerable progress. But this is not a perfect world and there will always be unscrupulous people so the next few points should give you some protection.
3. Find your Strategic Match: While certain collaborations may be short-term, all partnerships should be strategic (irrespective of time frame). This means that there should be congruence in values, approach to work, complementary (not necessarily exact) thematic areas of work and proven record of value. Before engaging with a prospective partner, it is important to consider what you can also offer the partnering organisation. What would be helpful is to have a predetermined checklist with some must-haves and a few criteria that might be flexible. This also means creating an internal standard for excellence that all prospective partners must abide by. This is why point (1) is too important. If you are not clear about who you are as an organisation or your needs, how will you recognise an organisation that matches your partner profile?
4. Start Small and Take it Slow: You can start from your circle, with organisations that align with your values and whose leadership you can vouch for to a certain degree. Even at that, do not be quick to commit to major projects or sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) without reading the fine print. You can also start with projects that may not require funding (because this often has higher stakes) but things like knowledge/data-sharing, staff exchanges etc. may be somewhere to begin. These low-hanging fruits help you get a feel of what kind of organisation you are dealing with. Lastly, it goes without saying that you request a ‘get-to-know-you’ meeting where you share your histories, policies and procedures with each other (yes, much like a first date) then you can go from there. It is important that you do not accept a partnership under duress and if the organisation refuses to honour this request, then it is possible that they are not the right match for you.
5. Be Diverse and Inclusive in your Search: Too often nonprofit organisations struggle to catch the attention of the more established entities, forgetting that there might be a host of other organisations doing impressive work and who might be reliable partners. It is advisable to cast a wide net. The fact that an organisation is small (or even smaller than yours) does not negate the value they could offer. You can also make an open call for partnerships, highlighting your interest area(s), what you bring to the table and an overview of the kind of organisation you want.

Ultimately, you should remember that the point of finding a partner is to achieve your strategic goals and ensure the sustainability of your organisation while contributing to another organisation. Approaching partnership-building from this perspective strengthens the network of non-profits across the Continent, helps us leverage our internal wealth of resources and weans us off our over-dependence on external funding.

Angela Umoru-David is a creative social impact advocate whose experience cuts across journalism, program design and corporate/development communications, and aims to capture a plurality of views that positively influence the African narrative

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Women with scarves of green and white for Nigeria Day at COP29. Aishwarya Bajpai/IPS

By Aishwarya Bajpai
BAKU, Nov 21 2024 (IPS)

The Nigeria Pavilion came alive with vibrant colors, cultural pride, and meaningful discussions during the celebration of Nigeria Day this week at COP29.

While traditionally celebrated on October 1st as Nigeria’s Independence Day, this event brought a touch of home to the global stage, showcasing the nation’s rich cultural heritage and unwavering commitment to tackling pressing climate challenges.

Unity and diversity took center stage, symbolized by the green-and-white scarves worn by participants.

Jennifer Kennedy Joma, a staff member of the National Council on Climate Change Secretariat in Nigeria, aptly noted: “Today is Nigeria Day. We got to celebrate diversity in Nigeria, the culture, the cloth. You can see everybody is wearing a particular scarf, carrying green and white, which is Nigeria’s color. Green signifies agriculture, white signifies peace.”

The pavilion was abuzz with traditional attire, lively discussions, and prideful representations of Nigeria’s identity and resilience.

Yet, beyond the cultural festivities, the day served as a platform to spotlight the nation’s challenges and strides in climate adaptation.

The hustle and bustle at the Nigeria Pavilion at COP29. Aishwarya Bajpai/IPS

Recent devastating floods across Nigeria have heightened the urgency for effective solutions. Representatives from various sectors—agriculture, energy, and youth development—engaged directly with government ministers in rare, open dialogues to bridge grassroots concerns with national policymaking.

A focal point of these discussions was Nigeria’s role in global climate finance.

As COP29 is billed as the Finance COP, highlighting the nation’s vast potential, Joma expressed hope for tangible collaboration.

“We hope to get the finance that the name stands for. We hope they look beyond what Nigeria is putting out there and understand that there is a lot Nigeria can bring from the minerals, especially from the marine part.”

Nigeria’s appeal extended beyond showcasing its rich resources—it was also a call for trust and partnership.

“We want to meet investors. We want to meet developers and then see what we can bring. There are plans on the ground; there are concepts on the ground. Work with us and see that your finances can be trusted fully with Nigerians,” Joma emphasized.

Inclusivity in climate action was another cornerstone of the day. The Minister for Youth and Women, Dr. Jamila Bio Ibrahim, highlighted the critical contributions of these groups to building climate resilience.

At the same time, the Minister for Electricity and Gas, Adebayo Adelabu, presented renewable energy as a transformative tool for nationwide electrification.

Nigeria Day at COP29 was more than just a celebration of culture; it was a declaration of purpose. It showcased a nation ready to harness its heritage and resources to lead global climate action.

As the day concluded, Nigeria’s message was unmistakable: with collaboration, innovation, and trust, it is poised to transform its vision for sustainability into a reality for both its people and the world.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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