Join the conversation: Climate crisis responsibilities and obligations of the developed world
Vice-president and CFO of the New Development Bank, Leslie Maasdorp, says the collective 100 billion dollar annual pledge made by the developed world to the developing world many years ago in Copenhagen to help fight climate change has not yet left the developed world. If not now, then when?
Excerpts from the interview with Leslie Maasdorp
Leslie Maasdorp on implementation as the mantra at COP27
I think COP27 in many respects – certainly for those of us in the financial sector – was kind of the finance compost here because it placed the financial sector right at the centre of what needs to be done. How do we use financial markets, capital markets to green the economies and this year the expectations are about implementation – meaning, what new financial instruments have we designed? What are the concrete ways in which, for example, we can de-risk sustainable investments so that we can crowd in and bring in the big institutional money like asset managers, sovereign wealth funds and so on. Not much of that has happened; there have been a lot of pledges made, but this is the focus. It's about what's next.
On the key focus of COP being the responsibilities and obligations of the developed world
One of the big focus areas of COP this year, being hosted in an emerging market economy so the issues of just transition are centre stage, will be about the responsibilities and obligations of the developed world. As we know these countries, the United States, Europe industrialised much, much earlier at a time when the cost of carbon and coal was not an issue. If you look at Africa, there are more than 1.1 billion people on the continent and the entire continent contributes 3.8% of global emissions. So, for any African country, we only have about 35% sustainable supply of electricity. The vast resources of coal are under the ground. So, we can't slow down the pace of economic progress in Africa because we should only rely on solar energy and wind energy, for example. That investment is not forthcoming. There are many countries that will still rely on coal, on gas and other forms of energy. The key point I'm making is that the hundred billion dollars pledged way back in Copenhagen about 13 years ago, has not really left the developed world. So, because COP is hosted now in the emerging market context, there will be a big focus here on the moral, historical and ethical responsibility of the developed world to fulfil those commitments.
Read also: