The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has said that Nigeria and Africa as a continent must demand for a fair share of the estimated $250 billion annually needed for climate change financing between 2020 and 2030 to tackle the negative impacts on the continent.
Executive Director of CAPPA, Akinbode Oluwafemi, made the call on Monday in Abuja at the third annual national climate change conference, themed, ‘Channelling Action Towards Just, Sustainable Climate Finance’.
His call was ahead of the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) or Conference of the Parties (COP) of the UNFCCC, commonly known as COP29, holding in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan from November 11 to 22, 2024.
Oluwafemi said this is against the paltry sum of $30bn it received in 2020 which is about 12% of the amount needed.
He said that while Africa will need a significant amount of the funds to adapt to climate change and limit the impact of the warming,
Nigeria, Africa, and the rest of the Global South are bearing the biggest brunt of climate crises despite their insignificant contributions to global emissions.
“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,” he said.
He said 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 $213.4bn annually with Multilateral Development Banks deploying more than $10bn to bridge the financing gap. It is believed that this modest demand will only attempt to cover mitigation and adaptation measures,” he said.
He said 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.
“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.
Presenting the keynote, on ‘Setting Agenda for Just Climate Financing from Africa’s Climate Batted Lens’, Executive Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey, noted that the so called advanced countries has took Africa as a distorted right to pollute and that despite ending the oil age globally is being mouthed, digging for more fossils in Africa is still being prioritised.
“Oil companies plan to sink $230bn in the next decade on new oil and gas projects and $1.4trn by 2050. So the COP should rather be called conference of polluters and not conference of parties,” Bassey said.
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