By Paul Messad | EURACTIV.fr | translated by Arthur Riffaud
03-10-2022 (updated: 03-10-2022 )
The COP27 and COP15 on biodiversity will respectively begin in November in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, and in December in Montreal, Canada, at a time of “tensions on multilateralism”. [rafapress / Shutterstock]
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Some 50 state representatives are meeting in Kinshasa on Monday (3 October) for a two-day round of meetings ahead of November’s COP27, where the energy crisis and geopolitical tensions are already proving a major challenge for the future of multilateralism.
Read the original French article here.
“We don’t have time for a war,” said Rémy Rioux, head of the French Development Agency (AFD), while opening a press conference ahead of the launch of COP27.
The COP26, which was held in Glasgow in November 2021, failed to reach a deal on the phasing out of coal – only incentives to gradually reduce its use.
Since then, Russia’s war in Ukraine has pushed countries to seek non-Russian energy sources, forcing some to fall back on coal. As a result, the International Energy Agency said global coal demand is set to return to an all-time high in 2022.
Warning against continued use of the fossil fuel, French President Emmanuel Macron told heads of state at the UN General Assembly on 20 September: “Our first collective battle is the eradication of coal”, urging states that “the crisis must not make us lose our way”.
For Western and European officials, the challenge this week at the UN General Assembly will be to address Ukraine and their countries’ problems, while trying to counter the Russian narrative which has found fertile ground in some developing countries.
According to Rioux, it is thus in a “moment of deep and multiple crises” that COP27 will open on 7 November in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, followed by the COP15 on biodiversity on 7 December in Montreal, Canada.
The war in Ukraine has led to increased tensions between the world’s major regional blocs. As China continues to quietly back Russia while the US leads NATO’s action, others are leading bilateral expeditions to strike energy deals.
Bilateralism is thus gaining ground, as illustrated by the recent successive visits by Italian, French and German leaders to various fossil fuel-producing countries, including Senegal, Qatar and Algeria. Representing the EU bloc this time, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also travelled to Azerbaijan in a bid to diversify the EU’s gas mix.
Despite the Egyptian presidency’s comment that the task of COP27 is to “implement” the commitments made at COP26, the current turbulent waters may hinder that task.
Ahead of the COP27 summit scheduled for November, there are fears African governments will use the threat of exploiting fossil fuel reserves to push European nations to keep their promises on climate change, investments and infrastructure.
Still, multiple challenges, like building “a bridge between the fields of climate and finance” remain, Thomas Mélonio, the French Development Agency’s Director of Innovation, Strategy and Research, has said during the AFD press conference ahead of the launch of COP27.
In 2020, sustainable finance accounted for $632 billion, though it is expected to reach an annual $4.35 trillion by 2030. The EU, for its part, said it will raise at least €1 trillion in sustainable investments over the next decade as part of its European Green Deal project.
However, Papa Amadou Sarr, director of the AFD Mobilisation Department, told EURACTIV France that while the interest rates of banks are on the rise, “financing is increasing everywhere,” adding that this is particularly true for regions with the least energy production capacity or fossil fuels that should not be exploited.
However, for Africa, “giving up fossil fuels right away is not realistic” warned Sarr.
While the AFD positions itself on public and carbon-free investments, Sarr said that “we cannot prevent international companies from doing their job” including investing in fossil assets if they so wish.
To avoid this situation, and the subsequent tensions that it generates – such as those surrounding the TotalEnergies pipeline project between Uganda and Tanzania – massive support should be given to decarbonising the economies of these regions, supporting the adaptation of their societies and compensating for the losses and damage caused by natural disasters.
A row over a gas extraction project in East Africa has exposed a divide between the EU and African leaders ahead of November’s climate change summit in Egypt.
In a context of “tensions over multilateralism”, as AFD climate and nature head Mathilde Bord-Laurens put it, what role ought climate negotiations play, and how can we integrate fundamental questions such as protection of life in them?
Geopolitics must not overshadow the protection of biodiversity, she urged, highlighting that around half of the world’s GDP ($44 trillion) is, according to the World Economic Forum, “moderately” or “highly” dependent on the environment.
Regardless, it appears that the COP15 on biodiversity, which has already been postponed a number of times, will not indeed amount to much, Mathilde Bord-Laurens feared.
[Edited by Daniel Eck/Nathalie Weatherald/Théo Bourgery-Gonse]
Tensions are mounting ahead of this year’s U.N. climate summit as vulnerable countries ramp up demands for rich countries to pay compensation for losses inflicted on the world’s poorest people by climate change.
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