At COP27, South African Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy makes it very clear she doesn’t want to see developed nations back pedalling on the ambitious mitigation targets they tabled at COP26. The minister is firm on the fact that the countries, which created the climate crisis, have no room to retrace their commitments at this stage.
Excerpts from the interview with Minister Barbara Creecy
Ninety percent of the world’s vulnerable populations to be climate resilient by 2050
I think the South African delegation came to COP27 with a clear mandate on the mitigation front, to make sure we keep ambition, to ensure the world average global temperature increase does not exceed 1.5 degrees. Science tells us that this represents the tipping point, after which several cataclysmic climate-related events will occur. Of course, as a country, we are already experiencing the effects of climate change, so we are very interested in the Global Work Programme relating to adaptation and the definition of clear adaptation goals. As a country, we have put forward the idea that by 2030, at least half of the world’s vulnerable populations should be more climate resilient and 90% of the world’s vulnerable populations should be climate resilient by 2050. Of course, the work around adaptation and mitigation raises the thorny issue of climate finance. And as we know, the developed countries have not honoured their commitment to pledge $100 billion per annum by 2020, and negotiations are still going on post-2020.
Africa should not be further indebted to solve climate problems
Developed countries would say they have achieved 80% to 90% of this target. I suppose the problem for developing countries is that a lot of this finance, especially from middle income countries such as our own, is in the form of loans. And obviously what we understand is that many middle-income countries are already heavily indebted. Given the fact that countries on the African continent have contributed only 4% to the build up of global emissions creating the current crisis, we do not think it’s appropriate that we should be further indebted in order to solve the climate problem.
The Just Energy Transition Plan unveiled by Cyril Ramaphosa
There is a lot of interest in our investment plan and obviously, once again, in that interaction, President Ramaphosa was expressing his concerns that the grant component is too low. The partners agreed they would look into that further. We are hoping now that our messaging and direction is clear, other countries will also be interested in contributing to our investment plan.
Read also:
- Join the conversation: Reaching net-zero by 2050
- Join the conversation: Climate change hitting Africa where it hurts most
- Join the Conversation: Will the financial commitments being made at COP27 materialise?
