Browsing: COP26

Summit for a New Global Financing Pact called by Emmanuel Macron

France will host, in Paris, on June 22 and 23, 2023, the Summit for a new global financing pact. The Summit seeks to rethink the contract between the countries in the Global North and the Global South. The organisers aim to formulate a new pact to address the global economic crisis and climate change.…

The grip of water scarcity in the Horn of Africa.Image Source Wikipedia

In the wake of the ongoing devastating drought that continues to ravage the Horn of Africa at an alarming rate, it is imperative to urgently redress Africa’s perennial water crisis. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that communities in the Horn of Africa are experiencing one of the most severe La Niña-induced droughts leading Kenya and Somalia to declare national emergencies due to poor and unpredictable rainy seasons. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), an estimated 13 million people are grappling with a major drought caused by the driest conditions since 1981.

This has been the aftermath of three failed rainy seasons in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia that have led to extreme water shortages, consequently leading to the decimation of crops and livestock deaths, forcing families from their homes and triggering conflict between communities. The root of this deleterious crisis has been climate…

oil uganda
  • African nations are harnessing it's push toward the oil and gas industry despite global push to reduce greenhouse gasses
  • Oil-rich nations are keen to explore and pump out various fossil fuels as the rest of the world moves toward being Carbon Neutral
  • COP 26 focused on resolutions for the world, but that was mainly the developed world, what about Africa?

Part 1: The fuel of modern-day civilization

The backdrop of modern-day development as embodied in Europe, America, Asia and the Arab Peninsula all lies in fossil fuel, crude oil, black gold. It is the burning of fossil fuels that runs our engines and powers our economies.   Indeed, we owe our modern civilization and advances to fossil fuel.

Great!  What is not so great is the cost that comes with burning fossil fuels.   The primary cause of current climate change, altering the Earth's ecosystems and causing human and environmental health problems

Financial Times CC

Climate change in Africa costs a lot, and climate extremes hit the region hardest. Between 2014 and 2018, roughly $5 per year, a person was the adaptation funding to each African – standing on less than $5.5 billion per year (World Economic Forum).

It is more than fair to say without financial support, climate change will probably push Africa’s impoverishment to a whole new level, as millions of Africa might be into extreme poverty by 2030.

The latter proves Africa to be at a relatively disadvantageous position as it contributes the least to global emissions and climate change. Yet, it receives minor financial support towards adaption.

READ: COP26 All Talk, No Walk

The previous 26TH United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), dubbed “the world’s best last chance”, provided the global stage with failure.

Despite promising to double funding, high-income countries (and high global emitters) failed …

Kengen Toshiba Operations agreement

While the world is fighting for zero-carbon neutrality, Africa’s—and Kenya's—struggle to achieve a zero-carbon footprint is being met with foreign challenges and local corruption. 

Experts have lauded the government’s plan to shift Kenya’s energy to purely clean energy by 2030.

In October 2021, President Uhuru Kenyatta told attendees of the COP26 summit that the country would achieve the milestone, seeing that it was more than half-way there already. 

“Renewable energy in Kenya currently accounts for 73 per cent of the installed power generation capacity, while 90 per cent of the electricity in use is from clean sources,” he told attendees, among them US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.  “We are on course to achieve our target of 100 per cent use of clean energy by 2030 and to achieve 100 per cent access to clean cooking by 2028,” Kenyatta said.

The Exchange Africa sought the views

coal

africaSouth Africa, like many other countries in the world, still uses coal to power its economy, but now the country wants to become a low carbon economy and a climate-resilient society and to do so, it has announced a major U.S.$8.2 billion deal with Europe and the US.

This deal makes South Africa the only African country to have come out of COP26 with a tangible, actionable and financed plan to make it climate change resilient. The energy embattled country has signed the deal with all the big boys, the UK, the U.S., Germany, France and the European Union.

The pact is considered the first of its kind, where the so-called ‘Global North Countries’ are funding a ‘Global South Country’ to transition to renewable energy. Granted in this case there is the interest in coal since South Africa is heavily reliant on coal and so the deal is considered a …

A timber yard in Cameroon. Kenya will host GLF in August boosting the country's timber industry. [Photo/CIFOR Forests News]

At the just-concluded COP26, Africa received the short end of the stick yet again as the negotiations veered off permanent and workable solutions for the continent’s present predicament. 

The deliberations from the Glasgow event show that Africa has no option but to finance its adaptation with or without the biggest polluters’ US$100 billion commitment. 

Africa has to become innovative to mobilize financing with or without the pledges from the rich countries. The funding, which was due in 2020, has been pushed back to 2023 showing the lethargy the rest of the world has in addressing the real and current threat facing Africa. …

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A coal powered plant in South Africa. South Africa is currently Africa's largest emitter of greenhouse emissions. www.theexchange.africa

Because outside of the governments, politicians, civil servants, lobbyists and pressure groups that thronged the Conference there is a cohort of entrepreneurs that are passionate about reversing climate change, that have fantastic commercially viable and innovative ideas, but who require funding and strategic support to make these ideas a reality.  

And so I want to suggest that as well as taking personal responsibility for our carbon footprint and doing all that we can to minimise our negative impact on Planet Earth, we should also be investing in line with environmental, social and governance principles at all times – and ensuring that 20% of our investments in 2021/22 should be directly targeted at investments that will have a positive environmental impact. …

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For Africa to tackle the climate menace, it needs concerted efforts from all the above parties for desired outcomes to be reaped. www.theexchange.africa

The scope of green finance is broad and encompasses initiatives taken by both public and private entities such as financial institutions, governments and international organizations in developing and supporting sustainable impacts through key financial instruments which lay the foundations of sustainable business models and investments.
Projects that fall under the green finance umbrella include the reduction of industrial pollution and lowering the carbon footprint, climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, promotion of renewable sources of energy plus energy efficiency, circular economy initiatives, sustainable use of natural resources and many more.
For Africa to tackle the climate menace, it needs concerted efforts from all the above parties for desired outcomes to be reaped.…

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A coal powered plant in South Africa. South Africa is currently Africa's largest emitter of greenhouse emissions. www.theexchange.africa

Gabon is one of few countries with a carbon-negative economy, thanks to the Congo Basin’s immense tropical forests, which absorb more greenhouse gases than the country’s companies, cars, and towns emit.

It just approved an ambitious climate law to ensure that its economic bases are on forests and agriculture rather than fossil fuels.

Outside assistance is required to attain this goal so that the government can continue to enhance living standards.
Many African countries rely on coal for electricity and have refused to sign a declaration signed by more than 40 countries this week calling for an end to the most polluting of fossil fuels. …