At its heart, international climate action is based on a “Grand Bargain” whereby developing countries, including in Africa, have agreed to make their fair contribution to tackle a crisis they did not cause, in return for the support – including finance – we need to make such contribution, adapt to its negative impact, and pursue our legitimate sustainable development objectives.

As we approach the UN Climate Summit (COP27) this November in Egypt, this bargain has been thrown into question. Our job is to restore it, and to put climate action back on track.

The challenge is clear. Heatwaves, fires, storms and floods have left no society unscathed. In South Africa we have seen rising temperatures and water stress across the country, with smallholder farmers and other communities struggling to adapt.

And this is taking place at just 1.1°C warming. With every extra tenth of a degree, the impacts will get worse.

Yet promises of climate finance have not materialised, and the transition to a low-carbon society is taking too long. This comes against a backdrop of rising geopolitical tensions, and global food and energy shortages.

Some now fear COP27 may not make the progress we all aspire to.  

Egyptian volunteers collect rubbish on the banks of the Nile River during the ‘Youth Love Egypt’ initiative in Giza on 29 September 2022. (EPA-EFE / Khaled Elfiqi)

I believe the contrary – that this summit offers a unique opportunity for the world to come back together, to reaffirm our shared commitment to effectively address the climate challenges, and to put multilateral action back on track. Let us not waste it.

There is good reason for hope. Societies everywhere are adapting, devising new technologies, getting more involved. Investment in climate tech is booming, from renewables to new carbon removal technologies to electric transport. Clean energy is getting cheaper every year.

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But to succeed, we must manage this transition fairly. We recognise that the Global North faces challenges. Yet those faced by the Global South are greater, with fewer resources to address them.

Africa, home to 17% of the world’s population, was responsible for just 4% of greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2017.

Yet we are suffering the consequences disproportionately.

At the same time, in Africa, 600 million people are currently without energy, while in the Global North – despite increasing costs – the lights are still on.

It is simply unfair to ask countries and people who contributed least to the making of the current climate crisis to shoulder the costs of clean transition, and to hamper their own development.

More than a decade ago, in 2009, developed countries pledged to provide $100-billion a year in climate finance by 2020. Today, that promise remains unfulfilled.

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The need for additional, highly concessional grant-based climate finance is today greater than ever. According to the Standing Committee of Finance of the UNFCCC, the cost of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) of developing countries is estimated at about $5.8-trillion by 2030.

Public, private, philanthropic and multinational development banks all have a role to play in this regard. We must think creatively, and financial institutions must adapt their practices to the climate reality if we are to succeed.

People take part in a demonstration, “26 years of COP: only words in the air! for a popular ecology!”, demanding action from world leaders against climate change, in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 6 November 2021. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Laurent Gillieron)

Developed countries should also honour the Glasgow Pledge to double adaptation finance by 2025 – so we can prepare and protect ourselves from the climate impacts already locked in.

And the time has surely come to address the massive loss and damage from climate change suffered by people in Africa, and elsewhere in the Global South. This is contentious, but we cannot avoid it any longer.

We can do more

On the other side of the bargain, we in Africa must do more to deliver more ambitious mitigation actions at COP27, and countries that have not yet done so should consider updating their NDCs.

In South Africa, there are important negotiations under way with key Global North partners to secure billions of dollars in financing to help the country move away from coal. If these talks succeed, they will send a powerful message not only to Africa but to the world on a potential way forward.

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Crucially, we must move on climate action and climate finance together – not piecemeal, but as a package. If any brick is missing, the edifice risks falling.

So, can we overcome our differences and restore the bargain? We can because we must. Developed countries can do more to support the financial and energy needs of southern Africa and beyond, to the benefit of all.

And we can do more in the Global South to pursue the climate action our people and the planet demands – if assured that this will not be at the expense of our legitimate pursuit of sustainable development goals, and the elimination of poverty.

This will mean compromise and negotiation, but in Paris in 2015, we proved that with the right will there is a way. We know what we need to do to tackle this crisis, and collectively have the means to do so.

Our job now as leaders is to get on and do it. DM

HE Sameh Shoukry is COP President-Designate and Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.