Countries will recommit and renegotiate their own climate goals and the contributions they can make to helping other countries achieve theirs at the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27), which will get under way in one week’s time in Egypt.
Africa is hosting this significant summit for the first time. African governments, business leaders and climate (and fossil fuel) activists hope the event’s location will amplify Africa’s demands.
SA and many other developing nations hope that serious consideration will finally be given to “loss and damage”. This was a concept established at COP19 to address losses associated with the consequences of climate change in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to its adverse effects.
It is estimated that air pollution kills 29,800 people in SA every year, and extreme heat cost workers R3.8bn in lost wages in 2021. This is according to a report released last week by Climate Transparency International, which offers a comprehensive review of climate action and emissions by G20 countries.
Forestry, fisheries and environment minister Barbara Creecy said in a recent presentation on SA’s COP27 expectations that loss and damage costs for Africa will range from $289bn to $440bn up to 2030.
SA and other developing nations want an agreement on the governance of loss and damage to be finalised at COP27, including the scale of financing arrangements.
The focus, according to Creecy, should be on grant-based funding including from developed countries’ public finance and multilateral development banks to be paid via direct budget support to governments. High on the agenda will be advancement of discussions on “special needs and conditions for Africa”.
The continent’s financing needs require special consideration, given the high levels of indebtedness of many African countries. But the continent also wants special conditions to apply, given that it has contributed less than 4% to the build-up of global emissions — but is the continent affected most heavily.
SA and its negotiating partners will urge developed countries to do more to mitigate carbon emissions and backtrack less.
SA, which is the largest greenhouse-gas (GHG) emitter in Africa and the 12th-largest globally, committed to having GHG emissions peak in 2025 at 510-million tonnes. And at COP26 in Scotland last year, the country committed to reduce domestic carbon emissions to within a target range of 350-million tonnes to 420-million tonnes by 2030.
SA is also a signatory to the Paris Agreement that seeks to limit global average temperature increases to below 2˚C by reducing fossil fuel emissions.
But these ambitions are yet to translate into the sort of action that would make these goals achievable.
Earlier this year, the Treasury decided to extend the first phase of the carbon tax, first introduced in June 2019, by three years, from 2022 to 2025. This first phase makes provision for polluting companies to receive 60%-95% tax allowances such as rebates or exemptions. Extending these provisions places a question mark over the feasibility of meeting SA’s climate commitments.
Stubborn short-sightedness by people such as mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe, which pits energy security and economic reform against energy transition, will also not help SA.
The Climate Transparency report notes that 2.9% of all government spending in SA subsidises fossil fuel, and these fuels still account for 92% of the country’s energy mix with 87% of electricity coming from coal. Renewable energy accounts for only 9% of electricity generated, which makes the country a poor performer on renewables among its G20 peers where the average is 29%.
According to the report, SA’s policies will result in emissions reductions only in line with 3% warming.
Few other countries have the natural advantages SA has to be a global leader in clean energy. We have ample sun and wind resources, we have the space required to generate energy from these resources, and we have the largest endowment of platinum — a key transition metal — in the world. Combined, this poses an opportunity for SA to become one of the largest producers of renewables, green hydrogen (a fuel made using renewable energy) and green steel (steel manufactured using renewables).
This is the sort of development that can unlock benefits akin to those experienced by rich oil-producing nations. It can transform our country, breathe life into a critically ailing economy and help reverse the devastating unemployment trend — not to mention address our immediate energy crisis.
SA’s ambitious climate goals must be backed up by solid action. Perhaps, if we do this, by COP28 or COP29 the country will have a more solid platform from which to issue demands.
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