Nairobi — The street to COP29 has begun in earnest within the backdrop of a world local weather report indicating that not solely was 2023 the warmest yr in a 174-year local weather file, it was the warmest by far. Report-breaking temperatures, mixed with El Niño, pushed weak and poor nations within the World South to the frontlines of utmost and extreme climate occasions.
It was a climatic carnage in Africa with deadly floods within the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, and Libya’s storms and floods that worn out 1 / 4 of a metropolis. Lethal cyclones in nations similar to Malawi, extreme drought in Kenya, and a months-long winter heatwave in Southern African nations.
In opposition to this backdrop, the Govt Secretary of UN Local weather Change, Simon Stiell, delivered a serious speech on February 2, 2024, from Baku, Azerbaijan, the host metropolis of the COP29 UN Local weather Convention in November 2024. The speech previewed the important thing points and actions wanted within the essential durations forward, constructing on progress at COP28 in Dubai.
“The time has handed for business-as-usual in all facets of the world’s local weather struggle. So at present, I’ll take a special strategy to this lecture. I would like us to begin in 2050, imagining what the world will appear like if we do achieve each limiting international warming to 1.5°C and defending all individuals from local weather change impacts,” he mentioned.
“After all, it is going to be no utopia, and there’s a potential extinction to cope with, however I’ll come again to that. On this imaginative and prescient of success, international vitality techniques are at net-zero emissions. International locations–or at the least regions–will largely be vitality self-sufficient.”
The speech touched on all key points on the coronary heart of the worldwide journey in direction of decarbonizing the world by 2050, according to the Paris Settlement. On the UN’s COP21 in Paris in 2015, world leaders got here to an historic settlement that gives a stable framework for the achievement of essential local weather objectives and the preservation of the atmosphere, individuals, and all life on Earth.
“International locations are certainly making noteworthy progress to achieve set objectives, similar to considerably lowering international greenhouse fuel emissions. Nonetheless, pledges and commitments from governments aren’t bold sufficient and won’t get us to web zero–cutting greenhouse fuel emissions to as near zero as potential by 2050. As we countdown to COP29, we should additionally observe what has been achieved when it comes to commitments made throughout the inaugural 2023 Africa Local weather Summit in Nairobi, Kenya,” Amos Kaggwa, a Ugandan-based local weather activist, tells IPS.
On renewable vitality, Stiell says, “Renewables have made vitality accessible, reasonably priced, and predictable for all. Meaning we keep away from the shocks and inequalities which have formed financial tendencies and conflicts prior to now. The worldwide monetary system has prioritised human wellbeing over servicing solely the underside line.”
Stressing that “the trillions beforehand spent on fossil gas subsidies can be found for higher functions: well being care, schooling, and security nets for many who fall behind. Our resilient societies have moved from an extractive to a regenerative relationship with nature. It’s not medically hazardous to go outdoors in main cities as a consequence of air air pollution. Tens of millions of lives are saved every year as a consequence.”
Kenya has already launched its Lengthy-Time period Low-Emission Improvement Technique (LT-LEDS), aimed toward steering this East African nation in direction of a net-zero emissions future by 2050. Solely eight different African nations have submitted their LT-LEDS. There are 68 nations on the earth which have submitted their LT-LEDS general, and nearly all of them are high- or middle-income nations.
Limiting international warming to 1.5°C would require a 43 p.c decline in greenhouse fuel emissions by 2030, per estimates by the Intergovernmental Panel on Local weather Change. Burning fossil fuels for electrical energy, transport, and warmth accounts for the nice majority of dangerous emissions, at roughly 73.2 p.c.
On this context, decarbonizing leaders are these with the best investments in renewable vitality to transition away from fossil fuels. They embrace China with a USD 758 billion international funding in renewable vitality capability from 2010 to 2019, the USA with USD 356 billion, Japan’s USD 202 billion, Germany with USD 179 billion, and the UK’s USD 122 billion.
“America, China, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, Germany, India, the UK, Japan, Canada, France, Australia, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, Italy, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, the European Union, and Türkiye because the G20–together chargeable for 80 p.c of the world’s emissions in 2025–have severely re-engineered their targets on this foundation,” Stiell says.
“As a result of they know that PR spin, re-branding, or tinkering across the edges will not minimize it to satisfy their local weather tasks, and that it could additionally depart them badly behind the innovation curve, not on the leading edge. These nationwide local weather plans aren’t simply items of paper; they have to be backed by sturdy coverage devices, costed out, and translatable into shovel-ready funding alternatives.”
An estimated 3.8 p.c of world greenhouse fuel emissions are emitted by Africa, however solely two p.c of the proportion of renewable vitality funding went to Africa in 2023. Kaggwa says Africa has many competing, urgent challenges and that highly effective, developed nations should be certain that the Loss and Harm and different local weather finance funds work to elevate the continent out of the local weather disaster.
“Africa is severely affected by local weather change, nevertheless it receives solely three p.c of world local weather finance. Africa wants about USD 579.2 billion in adaptation finance from 2020 to 2030. The COP26 commitments included doubling local weather adaptation finance by 2025. Present adaptation flows to the African continent are 5 to 10 instances beneath what is required,” Kaggwa emphasizes.
Stiell says it’s time to get on with the job of saving the planet, individuals, and all life on Earth, urging residents around the globe to demand bolder local weather motion now. Promising that on the UN Local weather Change Convention, there shall be no relaxation in pushing for the best local weather ambitions in accordance with the science–working side-by-side with all governments, companies, and group leaders.
IPS UN Bureau Report
