By Onu Okorie
The Executive Director of the Corporate Accountability & Public Participation Africa CAPPA Akinbode Oluwafemi has said that it is estimated that the African region will need an average of $250 billion per year in climate finance between 2020 and 2030 against the paltry sum of $30 billion it received in 2020, which is about 12% of the amount needed.
He stated this at the 3rd National Climate Change Conference,’ ‘Channelling Action Towards Just, Sustainable Climate Finance held in Abuja yesterday.
Oluwafemi who asserted that Nigeria, Africa, and the rest of the Global South are bearing the biggest brunt of climate crises despite their insignificant contributions to global emissions explained that what remains worrisome is the unbothered disposition of polluters, and the Global North, in their deliberate refusal to accept historical liabilities, commit to reparatory justice through progressive and sustainable grants and not loans, for climate change financing.
“Africa will need a significant amount of the funds to adapt to climate change and limit the impact of the warming.”
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC estimates that global investment and financial flows of $200—210 billion will be needed by 2030 to meet the global greenhouse gas emission target of below 1.5 degrees set in the Paris Agreement.”
“Additionally, the private sector is also expected to help in the mobilization of $213.4 billion annually with Multilateral Development Banks deploying more than $10 billion to bridge the financing gap.”
“Though minimal compared to the quantum of devastations caused by climate crises in the region including Nigeria, not up to 20% of the said funds have been raised.” He said.
The National Conference on Climate Change, with the theme “Channelling Action Towards Just, Sustainable Climate Finance” has exactly seven days to the official start of the 29th edition of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change UNCCC Conference of Parties COP holding in Baku, Azerbaijan.
He said, “Today’s conference is a yearly tradition of creating opportunities to harmonize diverse thoughts for a possible change in the climate change narrative.
This edition is not going to be any different with the aptness of the agenda and the array of speakers.”
He also said that Climate activists and rights movements across the world including the Demand for Climate Justice (DCJ), Climate Action Network (CAN), and Africa Make Big Polluters Pay (MBPP) have called for the declaration of a state of emergency on climate financing with an initial demand of $5 trillion in climate finance annually in the next five years as a down payment to the Global South as a matter of urgency and justice. It Is believed that this modest demand will only attempt to cover mitigation and adaptation measures.
“Besides, we are also worried that the delay in the operationalization of the Loss and Damage fund and the wish of the United States of America to retain control over it will only aid the repeat of the system that created the mess we are in.”
“Back home, though our National Climate Change Act 2021 made provisions for the Climate Change Fund to be sourced from sums appropriated by the National Assembly, subventions, grants and donations, compensations for meeting Nationally Determined Contributions, fines and charges from private and public entities for flouting mitigation and adaptation obligations, carbon tax and emissions trading, use, and administration remains unclear. He said.
“We will uncover corporate and political interests that have characterized global conversations around commensurate compensation and those that have slowed down just climate finance by misplacing them with carbon projects.
“We will share the often-underreported realities of the frontline communities. We hope to spur government and stakeholders’ intervention and expose green colonialism, and the structures that protect only the interests of a few over and above the majority.”