Global Warming: What Gives for Africa at COP28?
The layman on the street only sees rains, snow and sunshine. In Africa our diviners claim the hand of the divine is obvious in occurrences of violent storms and floods. Many see what they describe as the end times. 2023 is considered the warmest year so far. There have been floods in China, India, parts of Africa and Europe and several parts of the world. Unusual have been the spate of hailstorms in the deserts of Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Kenya in East Africa.
Proponents of Global Warming see nothing but a warming trend that if not checked could inspire some dire consequences. Akin to what was learned about the climate in high school, climate change supposedly occurs every generation. But climatic variations that have occurred in the past few years have changed the narrative from simplistic to a more scientific language that needs to be addressed accordingly. This time around the argument has expanded into several perspectives owing to many impacts of climate change in Africa.
At the Conference of the Parties (COP27) in 2022 an agreement was reached to set up a loss and damage fund to offer help to countries most vulnerable to the impact of climate change. The global north, most guilty of the rising temperatures in the world agreed to help developing countries and those least responsible. COP28 from Nov 30, 2023, to Dec 12, 2023, would discuss the concerned issues and the modalities in distribution in Dubai, including but not limited to the reduction of greenhouse gas and also renewable energy.
High on the agenda at COP28 was the loss and damage fund to be handled by the World Bank, but not very popular among developing countries who prefer the fund to be housed by another mechanism.
For being responsible for just less than four percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, Africa is the most impacted by climate change. According to the World Meteorological Organization climate related events were responsible for more than $8.5 billion in damages and the damages continue to rise. Between 2020 and 2030 costs are expected to be between $290bn and $440bn. The African Development Bank says Africa is already losing between five percent and 15 percent of its per capital GDP.
Several millions on the Horn of Africa are facing the dire of climate change-induced drought. Hunger and famine due to the carbon depletion are becoming more severe undoing years of progress and undermining sustainable development goals.
In some countries in sub-Sahara Africa lack of rainfall has affected soil fertility, and the use of chemicals to clear the ground for planting has worsened the situation. In Ghana, for instance, the rampant use of weedicides has driven such essential natural friends of plants as worms away from the ground. The use, therefore, of artificial fertilizers, has largely replaced rainwater that, unfortunately, is not enough to aid healthy growth of food plants. Africa is among the top regions that has been hit hard by global carbon emissions.
Global warming does not bode well for the continent that heavily relies on agriculture. It has the unenviable tendency to become poorer. The continent is also vulnerable to extreme weather changes, and in Malawi, six months of rain poured down in just six days causing several damages to life, farms, houses and road networks further to cyclone Freddy early this year. Recovery and reconstruction is estimated to cost more than $680 million, a substantial chunk of the country’s GDP.
The need to borrow more money has become paramount in finding solutions to recover from natural disasters. Many of them neck-deep in debt and already servicing high levels of debt still have to resort to further borrowing, at extremely high interest rates (10.5 percent for developing countries as against 3.5 percent for developing countries). What accounts for the high interest rates include current debt levels and the risk of future climate events.
African leaders, including Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is, among his peers in Africa who have been vocal against the practice.
Regarding debts incurred owing to the effects of global warming he has been puzzled in his comments on the rationale in having to borrow at expensive rates for suffering as victims, caused by developed nations. As the saying goes in Ghana: It’s a case of the lizard chewing on hot chili pepper only for the frog to bear the brunt of the heat and sweat of the pepper!
There is a suggestion that the richer countries that emit more greenhouse gases must pay, but there is disagreement about China and India, recent polluters, as well as oil-producing countries. There are also differing views about who should contribute and who should receive the money. At COP27 the agreed preference was “particularly vulnerable,” while some preferred only specific nations, such as the Small Island Developing States to benefit. Africa, in the meantime, is pushing hard to ensure that what happened in 2009 when a $100 billion pledge for climate finance was not enough.
Amandla is skeptical that, as has always been the case, there is little trust between the north and the south when it comes to issues of finance. And fair play has not always been part of the narrative between the two poles.
Developed nations must do the needful for Africa can no longer wait.
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