Last week forestry, fisheries & environment minister Barbara Creecy and the presidential climate commission hosted a national stakeholder consultation before next week’s COP27 climate change negotiations in Egypt.
As usual, statements about the need to protect coal mining communities from possible job losses through a just transition featured prominently. That’s something I always find quaint given the blithe disregard shown by the state towards the more than 1-million jobs the late economist Mike Schussler estimated the economy has shed due to years of coal-induced load-shedding.
Creecy gave a rousing address about how SA would lead the charge, begging bowl in hand, to plead for more grant finance from the developed world. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with the minister that the developed world should honour previous commitments to mobilise $100bn of climate finance per year between 2020 and 2025. However, given that the IMF’s World Economic Outlook released in October, projects that countries representing a third of world economic output (including the US, the eurozone and China) could be in recession next year, perhaps a slightly more compelling pitch than “please sir, can I have some more” wouldn’t go amiss.
The minister’s speech emphasised the need for additional finance, particularly for adaptation, which has always drawn scant attention relative to highly investable mitigation finance options. She stated that support must be provided for climate-resilient infrastructure development and the built environment, as well as for food and water security. Yes indeed. Important issues. But nowhere in her 25-minute speech did she mention anything being done in SA that might incentivise this elusive finance.
Soil carbon
On infrastructure, we have known for several years that the development of climate-resilient infrastructure is on net balance cheaper than conventional infrastructure. Studies such as Aurecon’s 2016 report on “the feasibility of alternative and sustainable infrastructure solutions for human settlements” for the Western Cape government have credibly shown how “the sustainable settlement option is better for the province, the municipality, the household, the economy and the environment”. Yet this approach is still largely ignored.
On water and food security, we have known since the Western Cape drought in 2017 that increasing soil carbon from below 1.7% to more than 2.3% decreases agricultural irrigation requirements (by far our largest user of water) by more than 20%, while improving yields and decreasing inputs. Has the state developed even a half-credible strategy to address this? No. Agri SA calculates that cultivated soils in SA have lost 45%-65% of their carbon due to conventional agricultural practices.
The minister stressed the importance of securing enabling finance for the Global Goal on Adaptation, which must support resilience in African countries. The presidential climate commission recognises that this finance “will be primarily from the private sector”, and Global Centre on Adaptation co-chair Feike Sijbesma went so far as to state that “80% of the funding for adaptation needs to come from the private sector” at the centre’s summit in Rotterdam last month.
So one would assume the minister or the presidential climate commission would have had a lot to say about market-driven approaches to adaptation finance (one of the hot button topics at this year’s negotiations) and the development of rules for the Article 6 global carbon market, which can unlock significant finance for adaptation. Yet there was not a word from her on the subject or so much as a mention in the commission’s “Key Messages for COP27” outlining Creecy’s position ahead of the negotiations.
Yes, we need finance and support to effectively navigate climate change’s challenges, but it’s little wonder that the developed world’s purse strings are so tight when we ignore readily available and financially sound actions we can take ourselves, in favour of running to mommy and daddy with a begging bowl.
• Maguire is carbon project manager at Climate Neutral Group SA. He writes in his personal capacity.
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