$100 billion has been promised to poor countries at Glasgow UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) to help mitigate the effects of climate change. This is the time to ask if African countries are benefiting, and if yes, who? Some talk about The broken $100-billion promise of climate finance.
At Glasgow’s COP26 summit, countries will argue for more money to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.
More than a decade ago, the United States said that it would make sure that industrialized countries, whose pollutants have warmed up the planet since the 1950s, would raise $100 billion a year starting in 2020 to help poor countries fight climate change. This pledge was enshrined in the 2015 Paris agreement, and at Glasgow, this pledge was renewed.
Canada and Germany expressed confidence that this goal will be achieved by 2023 and that grants instead of loans will be prioritized. The United States alone has committed to $11.4 billion a year by 2024. Although this plan has not yet received Congressional approval, small developing countries are lobbying for a more significant share of the climate funds.
The Mauritian Prime Minister is himself leading the diplomatic efforts for Small and Developing Island States (SIDS) to be given due consideration.
Nonetheless, since 2009, climate funds have been disbursed to several African countries. Who are those who have benefited the most?
Jeune Afrique, one of Africa’s most-read publications, has published a breakdown by country.
Here is the list of the 5 biggest beneficiaries:
- Egypt (11.4%)
- Morocco (10.8%)
- Kenya (8.5%)
- Ethiopia (8%)
- Tanzania (4.5%)
Here is the list of those who benefited the least from the funds:
- Libya (0.007%)
- Sao Tome (0.1%)
- Comoros (0.2%)
- Eritrea (0.2%)
- Eswatini (0.2%)
Although the Indian Ocean is warming up faster than the other oceans, Mauritius has obtained 0.6% of the funds and Seychelles, 0.06%. The surface temperature of the tropical Indian Ocean has risen by 1 degree Celsius between 1951 and 2015, compared to the global average of 0.7 degrees Celcius.
In Glasgow, it has already been decided that $8.5 billion will be disbursed jointly by the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the European Union, and the United States to help South Africa accelerate its transition from coal to green energy. $1.5 billion will go to protect the forest in the Congo Basin region.
Most of the climate finance is also going to middle-income countries, not the poorest, most-vulnerable countries. “Many, many African countries are lamenting that they are not able to jump through the hoops [to access climate finance] because of the complexity and the technicality,” says Chukwumerije Okereke, an economist at Alex-Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike in Ikwo, Nigeria. “And they’re not receiving sufficient capacity-building exercises and training in this.”
