SA and partners call out rich nations

Ministers from a group of developing countries, including SA, have accused developed countries of “backtracking on [climate] finance and mitigation pledges”, and of increasing their use of fossil fuels while expecting developing countries to move away from these resources.

In a statement issued during the UN climate conference, COP27, in Egypt, ministers from Brazil, SA, India and China (the BASIC group), led by SA’s minister for forestry, fisheries & the environment, Barbara Creecy, said they were “gravely concerned” that rich countries were not “showing leadership” in cutting their use of fossil fuels and progressing in their efforts to meet their stated climate change mitigation goals.

The 2022 Carbon Budget Report, released by the Global Carbon Project science team during COP27, found that global carbon emissions from the use of fossil fuel were on course to rise 1% this year. This is being driven by emissions from coal and oil rising above their 2021 levels, with oil being the largest contributor. The growth in emissions from oil, the report said, could largely be explained by the delayed rebound of international aviation after Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

The 2022 picture among major emitters is mixed and partly contradicted by the statement made by the BASIC group of ministers.

The report said emissions were projected to fall in China (0.9%) and the EU (0.8%), and increase in the US (1.5%) and India (6%), with a 1.7% rise in the rest of the world combined.

In SA, the only African country in the G20, fossil fuels still make up 92% of the energy mix, which is higher than the G20 average (81%), as reported in the 2022 Climate Transparency Report, and annual review of climate action and emissions by G20 countries.

In their COP27 statement the BASIC group ministers expressed concern that climate finance being provided by developed countries continued to fall short of the $100bn commitment, which was reaffirmed at COP26 in Scotland in 2021.

“This is despite the $100bn being only a tiny fraction of the financing which will be necessary for an economywide transformation and to meet the needs and priorities of developing countries,” the ministers said.

Financing that was being made available to developing countries, the ministers said, increasingly came with “unilateral conditionalities and eligibility criteria” and was predominantly in the form of loans rather than grants.

This reflects SA’s experience in the raising of finance through the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), which was announced at COP26. Through the JETP, Germany, France, the US, the UK and the EU committed $8.5bn in funding to support SA’s transition from coal towards a low-carbon economy. But, as details of the funding become clear, the money will predominantly come in the form of regular and concessional loans, with less than 3% of it to come from grants.

The ministers called for a “fundamental transformation and modernisation of the global financial architecture”. This, they said, should include systematic reform of the multilateral development banks “to make them fit for purpose in supporting sustainable development and just and equitable transitions”.

They said: “The key is to address risk aversion in investing in developing countries, to prioritise grant support and to dramatically lower the cost and conditionality on borrowing money that places multilateral support out of reach of the majority of the world’s population, including in BASIC countries.”