Social justice must prevail at the most exclusionary COP ever

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The 26th summit of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (COP), scheduled to commence on 31 October 2021, is the biggest political moment for the climate emergency since the Paris Agreement in 2015, where 195 signatories agreed to avoid temperature increases from exceeding 1.5oC in a bid to avoid a climate catastrophe. As delegates prepare to converge on Glasgow for COP26 to re-evaluate and negotiate their commitment to this plan, we are faced with global governments’ reluctance to follow through with commitments and the threat of carbon majors derailing any potential progress. 

The South African Climate Action Network (SACAN) is a coalition of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels. SACAN as a network will, alongside numerous South African NGOs, send delegates to COP26, to engage in meaningful climate action. SACAN endeavours to ensure that despite the vaccine inequity and prohibitive participation costs, that the Global South’s priorities are heard and prioritised.

The Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP), has long been criticised for its exclusionary nature. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has posed new challenges and highlighted further injustices and inequalities encountered at such multilateral platforms. Activists have described the upcoming COP as  “the most exclusionary COP ever”. The Climate Action Network (CAN-I) advocated throughout 2021 for vaccine equity and a TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver on Covid-19 vaccines. Recognising the increasingly prohibitive costs of transportation, accommodation and the mismanaged vaccination drive, in September, CAN-I called for COP26 to be postponed until such a time that the Global South can inclusively participate in the negotiations. Despite these valid and justifiable demands, it appears that the conference will commence as scheduled.

Ambition

The highest priority for SACAN ahead of COP26 is that countries commit to more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that are aligned to the 1.5oC temperature goal agreed to in the Paris Agreement. South Africa has shown significant progress by updating its first NDCs in line with COP guidance, albeit these commitments still fall short of what is required by science and what is a part of South Africa’s fair share range.  

The Presidential Climate Commission (PCC) states that only by reducing annual emissions to 350MtCO2e by 2030 will South Africa be playing its part in keeping the globe to under 1.5oC increase. To illustrate, a 1.5oC  global average temperature increase translates to a 3oC temperature increase in South Africa. According to the IPCC’s AR6 report published recently, we can expect extreme droughts in the interior of the country and extreme precipitation along the coastal regions. To curtail this, South Africa will need support from the international community through both funding instruments and political pressure on the state to ensure we do not move too far off the 1.5oC trajectory. 

The PCC submitted its recommendations on the updated NDC to President Cyril Ramaphosa in July this year. The report recommended decommissioning of coal-fired power stations (CFPS) once they’ve reached their end-of-life, increasing investments in renewable energy and rolling out green transport initiatives at scale to lower our carbon emissions. The Commission also recognises the importance of greater ambition to reducing emissions targets that will lower the transition risk, the inherent risk in changing strategies, policies or investments as society and industry work to reduce its reliance on carbon and impact on the climate (such as the reduction in the value of investments in carbon-heavy industries), improve energy security and attract additional international finance. 

Striving for more ambitious emissions targets now will lessen future costs from climate damage and limit opportunity costs from unaligned spending, while positioning the country as a globally competitive trading partner. 

Achieving this also requires developed countries to play their part in supporting developing nations like South Africa in meeting their NDC commitments. The current commitments by developed nations are insufficient to close the ambition gap. UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report has been tracking the emission gap for over a decade now and their latest finding is that the global community is still on course for a 3oC  temperature increase by the end of the century despite a slight dip in greenhouse house gas (GHG) emissions in 2019/20 caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. G20 member states’ pledges are also insufficient to meet the 1.5oC range. The sub-Saharan region could potentially experience a contraction in its gross domestic product (GPD) of 3% by 2050, due to the impact of climate change. Alterations in precipitation patterns, rising temperatures and extreme weather increasingly contributed toward food insecurity, poverty and displacement in Africa in 2020.

Finance

This reality further necessitates the dissemination of the $100-billion per annum in concessional finance that the Global North has pledged to accelerate climate objectives. It is imperative that these Global North countries with the financial means and resources propose more ambitious targets in line with the 1.5oC target and deliver on the intended finances. COP26 needs to shed light on how parties including South Africa will get this support. $100-billion per annum was pledged for climate finance to address climate impacts, but this target has yet to be met since tracking started in 2013. 

The South Africa Climate Finance Landscape published in January this year looked at the flow of Climate Finance to South Africa for the 2017-2018 period. Of the global share of Climate finance, the continent received 26% from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries; of that, $4.2-billion came to South Africa. By comparison, in order for South Africa to meet its NDC commitments, it will need to invest $41-billion per annum over 15 years (from 2015). The report goes on to highlight how much climate finance has been invested and the share of this finance between mitigation and adaptation projects. The report finds that 81% of funds went to mitigation projects compared to only 7% for adaptation. The latest version of the report is expected to be published next week.

The terms and conditions of finance should not place undue fiscal pressure but ensure weaning off fossil fuels at a faster pace, meaning that avoid further debt burdens on the sovereign. A rolling finance programme, the deal or fund must be a multi-tranche, multi-year facility, funded by a multi-lender consortium. SACAN’s position is that a more even balance between finance for mitigation and adaptation must be achieved. This could be done through various mechanisms including the recapitalisation of the Adaptation Fund or having specific targets for adaptation. The $100-billion per annum which was pledged is intended to support parties to meet their climate commitments; extreme weather events present a clear and present danger to society, especially to those in developing nations and Least Developed Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Not only have we witnessed flooding in Germany but we have seen flooding in West Africa and cyclones in Southern Africa that put pressure on governments to pay for damages caused by climate impacts. 

In addition to this, the Global North must take urgent and needs-based action on loss and damage under the UNFCCC that supports the most vulnerable people, communities and ecosystems to address unavoided and unavoidable climate change impacts. SACAN urges global leaders to prepare to address this urgent and outstanding issue of loss and damage finance and agree on a COP decision for operationalisation of the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage; ensuring sufficient resourcing and effective governance; a permanent SB agenda item to discuss Loss and Damage to increase political relevance and its profile, assess ongoing progress to secure financial resources for Loss and Damage, and provide a political space beyond technical discussions to ensure momentum and action.

Cross-cutting issues 

To ensure social justice prevails, delegates must maintain principles of gender sensitivity and intergenerational equity. Commitments must be informed by rights-based, gender-responsive approaches to environmental policy, programmes and projects. Women are increasingly facing GBV in defence of land, natural resources and human rights globally, the failure of governments to recognise and respect indigenous communities and LGBTQI+ defenders legitimises the violence against these groups. Aggressors are further emboldened by ineffective justice systems. A Global Witness report, The Victims: Environmental Defenders reveals that since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, on average, four activists have been murdered each week. Women activists experience increased levels of gender-based violence. ​​Issues such as girls’ education, Sex & Reproductive Health and empowerment are climate issues. 

Climate actions must promote gender responsive energy democracy. It moves us away from top-down, market-based approaches for energy production, distribution and control over natural resources and progresses towards an economy of care. Communities, including women, should have control over their own energy systems as well as over other natural resources. A gender responsive, ecosystem based, community driven, participatory, and fully transparent approach to climate change adaptation and resilience needs to replace the corporatisation of agriculture and the promotion of large-scale industrial agriculture at the expense of women farmers, pastoralists, and Indigenous Peoples. A just transition to a green economy and green infrastructure must centre around resource-care work, enable women and girls to lead a just transition to a green economy, ensuring that there is equal opportunity in the green economy transition. Issues such as girl’s education, Sex & Reproductive Health and empowerment are climate issues. 

On intergenerational equity, parties must go beyond the acknowledgement that younger generations are severely threatened by climate change and its multiple impacts. This isn’t “future generations” anymore, it is the children alive now. Young people need a true demonstration that older people in power are upholding principles of intergenerational equity. This can be achieved through the institutionalising of mechanisms to promote the participation of youth in climate negotiations, establishing and promoting platforms to ensure collaboration and skills transfer between young people and, finally, establishing and promoting platforms to ensure meaningful, intergenerational dialogue and ambitious climate action.

In conclusion, the concerns set out above would have served as a key point of departure for civil society when approached by envoys from Germany, France, the UK and the USA, visiting South Africa to negotiate a coal phase-out ahead of COP26. This would have served as a crucial moment for the voices of civil society, which remains heavily under-represented and under-consulted at platforms such as COP to air its grievances. 

It is essential to consult Global South participants on the obstacles they face in order to develop appropriate solutions. SACAN endeavours to ensure that these concerns are top of the mind of delegates as negotiations commence. SACAN will dedicate itself to campaigning for a safe and equitable COP, as reasonably practicable under the circumstances. SACAN calls on the UK government to ensure safe civil society participation in events, protests and other activities outside the official UNFCCC spaces at the Glasgow conference, including a convergence space organised by civil society, Peoples’ Summit, and peaceful mobilisation, among others.