COP27: African negotiators worried over lack of progress on loss, damages negotiations

African Negotiating Group and African Ministerial Conference on the Environment Concerns have been expressed about the slow progress on issues affecting the continent at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27, in Egypt.

This position was contained in a joint statement issued on Tuesday by Alioune Ndoye, Senegal’s Minister of Environment, Sustainable Development and Ecological Transition, who doubles as President of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), and Collins Nzovu, Senegal’s minister. Zambia’s Green Economy and Environment, Chair of the African Group of Negotiators.

The statement reads in part: “As you know, COP-27 has been designated as an implementation COP, and for us, as the African Group, we have come here focused and determined to ensure that we deliver on implementation.

“We also see COP-27 as the African COP taking place on African soil, the continent most affected by the climate crisis and yet least affected by climate change pollution; therefore, we hope that COP-27 will have tangible results that reflect the wishes of the people, including the special needs and special situations of Africa”.

In the evaluation report

The group referred to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which released shocking findings, particularly on the African continent.

According to the report, Africa will be more affected than any other continent, and the continent accounts for less than 4 percent of all global emissions.

“Africa has the lowest historical and current emissions. AR6 also estimates that adaptation costs in developing countries will reach $127 billion, and that Africa needs $86.5 billion annually by 2030,” the statement said.

The group said that the position of Africans is not a competition for weakness, but the decisions of the COP have recognized Africa, and science mentions that Africa is a continent affected by complex overlapping challenges, and many generations of Africans have been left behind and have suffered. which are not the consequences of actions.

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The statement added: “The systemic problems facing Africa require dedicated and targeted interventions. This will also unlock our continent’s potential to help achieve the 1.5c world; in a continent that is already food insecure, Africa’s 34% decline in food production and has suffered losses and damage to agricultural productivity (IPCC AR6).

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“We are concerned about the lack of progress in various matters of importance to our group, especially finances, adaptation and losses and damages. However, with a few days to go, we believe we can still cover all lines of work, including adaptation, loss and damage, mitigation and implementation.”

According to the group, adaptation is a matter of survival for Africa and COP27 should increase adaptation action and support, including the Global Adaptation Goal (GGA).

The negotiators said that intensive technical work had been carried out throughout the year and therefore called on all parties to “work actively to reach an agreement on a framework within which progress towards the GGA can be achieved and assessed”.

“COP27 is our fighting chance to ensure that the multilateral process fulfills the promise of an adequate adaptation response in the context of the 1.5 temperature target,” the statement said.

About Loss and Damage

Negotiators said they hope the COP will agree on an effective and well-resourced Santiago Network on Loss and Damage to catalyze technical assistance to developing countries and establish a loss and damage financing facility with a clear roadmap for its full operationalization.

The statement said: “The African continent suffers from many types of losses and damages, which are evident in different sectors and on different time scales associated with extremes and slows.

“Finance is essential to make it happen; We call on parties in developed countries to commit constructively to a meaningful financial package. This should deliver the much-promised USD 100 trillion.”

The impact of climate change on Africa

Africa has suffered and continues to suffer from the adverse effects of climate change, and has not received the multilateral support needed to address the climate challenge.

African countries need access to large levels of new, additional and predictable grant and concessional finance, and certainly to create enabling environments that can be scaled up effectively by beginning to de-risk and create new asset classes for net investment.

This would enable more meaningful mobilization and leverage of public and private finance and improve access to the elusive trillions of dollars.

The African group expresses continued disappointment that the annual target of US$100 billion by 2020 has not been met, and stressed the importance of meeting this target as soon as possible in order to build confidence and faith in the multilateral process to combat climate change.

“We call on developed countries to fulfill their commitment to meet the target and ensure the progress of efforts in the continued mobilization of climate finance,” the statement said.

About mitigation

On mitigation, the team said they will continue to constructively engage in technical work to design an effective and dynamic mitigation work program that will deliver concrete decisions to increase mitigation ambition and support for just transitions.

Negotiators want the mitigation work program to accelerate the implementation of the NDCs, asking developed countries to take the lead in setting the targets, while providing enhanced support to developing countries.

“COP27 should design an effective and dynamic program of work and lead to concrete decisions to increase ambition for mitigation and support for just transitions,” the statement said.