Former G77 chief says Cop deal does not pledge enough for poorer nations
A former chief negotiator for the G77 coalition of developing countries believes nowhere near enough money has been pledged by wealthy nations to make tackling climate change a success.
Lumumba Di-Aping, a highly experienced South Sudanese diplomat, said Cop26 had been more about “dressed up” protectionism than a coordinated effort to save the planet from the effects of global warming.
Rich countries have set a $100 billion annual climate finance target for the poorest nations suffering the most from the climate crisis – but Di-Aping said that this fell well short of what is required.
“The science and the finance is available to make a real difference but we are still lacking the leadership and political will to carry this through,” he said. “$100 billion is only a small fraction of the UK’s GDP for instance, and this is for 150 countries. It is like giving a cancer patient an Aspirin.”
Di-Aping said that to make a meaningful difference, about 3% to 5% of the GDP of the world’s richest countries requires to be set aside.
“That is about $75-$80 trillion that needs to be dedicated to climate change mitigation and adaptation globally,” he said. “This would create the green transformation that we need. Anything less is a waste of time.
“But I just don’t see the urgency from the developed nations that is needed to make a real and rapid difference. A lot of what we saw in Glasgow was simply dressed-up protectionism and nationalism.”
The senior diplomat said he believed that ultimately it would be people power in developed countries like Britain, where citizens can push for reform, that would be required to make a meaningful difference.
“The youth movement has galvanised for a real solution because they know that promises that have been made by governments are not just ‘blah blah blah’ as Greta Thunberg says – they are much worse than that...they are a mirage,” he said.
“The only ones taking this seriously are the youths. They know that we are sitting on $trillions of riches and that claims of a lack of finance are hollow. They don’t buy into these mythologies.”
He added: “The world is not now at one minute to midnight as Boris Johnson said at the beginning of the conference – we went past midnight at the Paris Agreement in 2015.
“However, we still seem to have an aversion to facing the realities that are in front of us. If this doesn’t change, and soon, we will all be in a very dark place.”