Fierce debates expected as COP 27 begins
OVER 90 Heads of State and Government, including President Mnangagwa, and over 30 000 delegates are expected to descend on the resort town of Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, for debates on how the world can intensify the fight against climate change.
Africa is expectant that the COP27 would produce a better deal for the continent, which emits less gases into the atmosphere, but bears the largest brunt of the impact of climate change.
The African continent in general, and Zimbabwe in particular, has been hit by frequent floods, in some cases erratic rains, veld fires, and poor yields, due to rising temperatures.
In 2019, Manicaland province in eastern Zimbabwe and parts of Masvingo, were badly pummelled by heavy rains induced by Cyclone Idai.
Hundreds of people were killed, roads extensively damaged and thousands of people left homeless due to Cyclone Idai.
Harare is therefore expected to mount serious arguments, especially pertaining to the release of US$100 billion that was promised by wealthy countries so that developing countries can meaningfully fight the impact of climate change.
There would be some relief for the Zimbabwe delegation and Africa Group of negotiators on the issue of phasing down use of coal.
During COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland last year, one of the issues raised by wealthy countries was on the need to cut the use of coal.
Zimbabwe and other developing countries had rejected the resolution outright, with President Mnangagwa saying the developed countries developed because they used coal in the past, and they should allow developing countries a just transition to renewable energy.
For Zimbabwe it’s more important given that it invested US$1,4 billion in 2018 into the expansion of Hwange Power Station at add 600MW.
Unit 7, which will feed 300MW into the grid, is expected to be switched on sometime this November, Unit 8 being completed in the first quarter of next year.
But with some countries in Europe turning to coal, especially this winter, sparks are highly unlikely going to fly over coal use.
A number of Zimbabwean negotiators are already Sharm el Sheikh, with Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu touching down in Egypt yesterday.
President Mnangagwa, along with 90 other world leaders, are expected to arrive in Egypt from today ahead of the key conference.
Mr Washington Zhakata, who is the United Nations Framework for Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) focal person for Zimbabwe, and Director for Climate Change Management Department in the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Zimbabwe is part of the African negotiators during the conference.
In an interview yesterday, Mr Zhakata said as momentum builds-up for climate change action, the African Group of negotiators met in Sharm El Sheikh a few days ago to finalise the strategy on approaching the negotiations at COP 27.
“The discussions focused on the need to accelerate action for both climate change adaptation and mitigation,” said Mr Zhakata.
“COP 27 is expected to be among the largest gatherings of a COP. The COP is coming at a time when neither the COP27 host, Egypt and outgoing COP president the UK, have submitted Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) revisions with increased ambition, whilst most of the developing countries submitted more ambitious revised NDCs.”
Australia is the only developed country to have increased ambition since COP26 so far.
Mr Zhakata said resourcing of the climate funds by developed countries remains the other sticking issue.
He said failure of wealthy countries to keep the US$100 billion pledge to help poor nations deal with the climate crisis and mobilising funds for mitigation to keep global warming under 1,5 degrees Celcius, are expected to be the key issues at COP 27, which ends on November 18.
On the just transition from fossil fuels to renewable forms of energy, Zimbabwe and the Africa Group of negotiators have rallied each other so they speak “with one voice as Africa”.
“The divide and rule approach of the developed countries by choosing countries to provide financial resources for implementing a just transition and leaving out others was deplored (during pre-COP27 negotiations).
“In view of the current global geopolitical situation especially in Eastern Europe, which has resulted in some European countries starting to move back to coal use, which was in principle partially banned at COP 26 in Glasgow, was one of the issues considered to create an enabling environment for other developing countries to consider the extension of the phase-down period in view of the countries’ national circumstances and respective capabilities,” said Mr Zhakata.
In respect of finance for phasing down use of coal,
South Africa is the only African country that has been openly promised US$8,5 billion to transit to renewable forms of energy in the near-to medium term. Experts say given that promise, South Africa showed sympathy for the transition from coal during preparatory meetings.
“There is need for the remainder of the African countries to unite and approach the issue strategically together especially, looking at possibilities for extension of the phasedown period or suspension of the discussions in totality, depending on the progress of the meetings.
“Of course as a country that uses and intends to use it for some time, we expressed the need for diplomatic silence unless we see the issue of the greenhouse gas reductions in the energy sector being escalated and relating to phase-down of coal.
“The Africa Group chair shall be calling to consult with concerned countries as negotiations start on 7 November,” said Mr Zhakata.
With almost all developing countries submitting revised and ambitious NDCs, biggest contributors to climate change have failed to submit their ambitious NDCs as backed by the agreement and the consequent agreement to keep the rise in global average temperature to well below 2°C, and ideally 1,5°C, above pre-industrial levels.
For any move requested from the developing countries on climate change mitigation, the Africa Group is requesting developed countries to lead by example in upscaling efforts to reduce emissions through the submission of revised and more ambitious emission reduction targets.
On climate finance, Zimbabwe’s focus is in tandem with the aspirations of the entire Africa Group on a multilaterally agreed definition of finance, a new collective goal on finance beyond 2025, an assessment of commitment of developed countries to provide US$100 billion annually for climate finance by 2020, and matters related to transparency of financial flows.
Developed countries have been lethargic in resourcing the multilateral funding mechanisms such as the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund, among others.
The failure by developed countries to meet their US$100 billion pledge to the Green Climate Fund for access by developing countries for resilience projects and implementation of mitigation actions including NDCs would be tabled by the Africa Group as the baseline for untrustworthy practices.
This comes as most of the NDCs for African countries are conditional upon provision of international finance.
Mr Zhakata said there was need to find a way of pushing the climate finance issue onto the agenda and to fight for its serious consideration.
“It is abundantly clear that the global investments needed to respond to the climate change threat are much larger than US$100 billion. We need to focus on setting an effective, and fit for purpose, post-2025 climate finance goal.
“We also need to focus on the broader collective goal of making finance flows consistent with low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development,” he said.
The other issue discussed at the Africa Group of Negotiations, which is expected to be fiercely debated at COP 27 is how developed economies will address the costs that being incurred by developing economies as they fight the effects of climate change such as flooding which has become a perennial problem in Southern Africa including Zimbabwe, and other parts of the world such as Sudan, Pakistan and Nigeria.
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