African interest in the heat of global climate negotiations

In the final days of the Bonn Climate Change Conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), there was a resounding call to “protect the treaty and climate policymaking from the undue influence of the globe’s biggest polluters”.

This was delivered by Corporate Accountability International to the parties of the UNFCCC on behalf of Rainforest Action Network, hundreds of other organizations and hundreds of thousands people.

The call comes as record droughts and rainfall as well as relentless heatwaves claim lives around the globe and some of the world’s biggest polluters attempt to co-opt the treaty process and influence negotiating outcomes.

The June meeting in Bonn was one of the last formal meetings of the Parties before the next full Conference of the Parties to the treaty in Paris— largely regarded as a make-or-break moment for the agreement.

“Why would you let the professional arsonist join the volunteer fire department?” said Bill McKibben, author and co-founder of 350.org. “These are the guys who want to keep the problem going, not solve it.”

From aggressive lobbying of national governments to bankrolling of international meetings, the fossil fuel industry interferes at all levels. Industry co-optation of treaty meetings has been a growing problem and a primary obstacle to progress.

“The fossil fuel industry is not a partner in the solution—it is the driver of the crisis. Giving big polluters a seat at the table glosses over the glaring conflict of interest fossil fuel corporations have in a real solution to climate change,” said John Stewart, deputy campaign director at Corporate Accountability International. “Inviting gas, oil and coal corporations to shape climate policy is akin to looking to Big Tobacco to shape public health policy.”

Cutting Carbon Emissions
Pope Francis is reported to have called global warming a major threat to life on the planet, saying it is due mainly to human activity, and describes the need to reduce the use of fossil fuels as an urgent matter.

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town of called on the governments of the world to cut carbon emissions drastically to help the world’s poorest people cope with the impact of climate change and to develop in a sustainable way.

The Archbishop, who is primate of the Anglican Church of South Africa and Chair of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network (ACEN), was in Bonn in his role as ACT Alliance Global Climate Ambassador.

“Let us act now for climate justice; my call is for people beyond the Christian faith, all people of God from all walks of life to call on world leaders to commit to a process that will deliver an ambitious agreement in Paris, which will support people who are already suffering the impacts of climate change,” said Archbishop Makgoba.

“I know reduction of carbon emissions is a political and an economic issue, however, it is also a social issue, a moral issue, and a spiritual issue. We are given the responsibility to care for each other, creation, our planet, and our environment,” he said.

While negotiators work to move the UN climate talks forward in Bonn, G7 leaders also met and climate change was on the agenda.

Archbishop Makgoba welcomed the launch of the renewable energy initiative for Africa, which he says “will help our continent to step by step ensure access to sustainable energy for all.”

Africa Progress Panel and G7
The Africa Progress Panel has welcomed the commitment made by the G7 to make deep cuts in emissions and to phase out of fossil fuels by the end of the century.

In this year’s Africa Progress Report, “Power, People, Planet: Seizing Africa’s Energy and Climate Opportunities”, the Panel called on the countries that emit the most to raise their level of ambition and implement their promises at the December climate summit in Paris.

With its 2015 summit communiqué, the G7 has signalled its collective intention to do just that.

Governments in the major emitting countries must now place a stringent price on emissions of greenhouse gases by taxing them, instead of continuing effectively to subsidise them, for example by spending billions on subsidies for fossil-fuel exploration. The G7’s reaffirmation of its pledge to work for the elimination of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies is thus notable.

“I applaud Chancellor Merkel’s leadership in steering the G7 to a firm agreement to decarbonise the global economy over the course of this century. The communiqué’s recommitment to phasing out fossil fuel subsidies is encouraging and an essential first step to ensuring that agreement is honoured. The G7 has also heard the call from Africa and Africans to massively scale up investment in renewable energy across our continent. The G7 pledge to mobilise resources to accelerate the creation of a low carbon energy system in the region could be “a game changer”; helping Africa grow and leapfrog to a sustainable low carbon future. This is good for Africa and the global fight against climate change,” said Kofi Annan, Chair of the Africa Progress Panel.

Contrast of Africa Civil Society Concerns

The reality of reaching an agreement on key elements of the new climate change pact seems to be a mirage, states the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), the largest African civil society platform on climate change and sustainable development.

PACJA Secretary General, Mithika Mwenda, has expressed fears “those who suffer most from climate change impacts in Africa: the indigenous people, women, youth, small-holder farmers, hunters and fishermen – will be left to bear the brunt of the climate change crisis; yet they are the ones least responsible for human-induced climate change”.

According to him, there should have been a draft proposal by now, which is responsive to the needs of vulnerable people on adaptation, loss and damage, finance, capacity building, transparency and accountability.

“Instead, all contributions to the agreement whether pre-2020, post-2020 or INDCs, are biased towards mitigation – aligning with those defined and determined by countries wielding the most power, and those which hold the largest responsibility for the climate crisis,” he noted.

PACJA has urged the Parties to seize the remaining negotiation opportunities left before Paris to agree on something concrete and illuminate hope to millions of people under threat of the devastating impact of climate change.

“Let this not be a missed opportunity to ensure a pro-poor and people-centred solution to the urgent climate change crisis,” said Mithika.