This preparatory meeting must make it possible to take stock of the possible advances and the blockages to be feared during the COP27 in Charm-el-Cheikh, from November 6 to 18.
Le Monde with AFP
a month from COP27, in November in Egypt, the environment ministers of around fifty countries meet on Monday October 3 in Kinshasa for a “pre-groove” which should call the rich and polluters to the countries Assume their responsibilities and get their hands in the pocket. This type of preparatory meeting is not a framework for formal negotiations but must allow different countries, groups and organizations to take stock of possible advances and blockages to be feared during the UN conference on climate change, scheduled for Charm-el-Cheikh from November 6 to 18.
After the opening ceremony at the People’s Palace, seat of the Parliament of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the participants will discuss for two days around the usual themes of climate negotiations: adaptation, attenuation, finance, “Losses and prejudices”. Multiple bilateral meetings will also take place between Europeans, African, Asian and American, the United States being represented by its special climate envoy, John Kerry. “The COP and the Pré-Cop being organized on the African continent, the emphasis will certainly be placed on the support of the countries of the South by the industrialized and polluters”, recently analyzed a Western diplomatic source.
During the previous COP, in November 2021 in Glasgow, the international community had reaffirmed its objective of containing the global warming at 1.5 ° C compared to the pre-industrial era, an objective set in 2015 By the Paris agreement but for the time being out of reach, since we are already at almost 1.2 ° C. Discussions have since taken place on the manner of materializing this ambition, but no notable advance has been recorded, in particular in terms of funding, a question that the Egyptian presidency of the COP now displays as one of its priorities for the summit de Charm-el-Cheikh.
“Loss and damage”
In Glasgow, the poor countries – the least responsible for warming but the most exposed to its consequences – had requested a specific mechanism for taking into account “losses and damage” (or “prejudices”) caused by climate change. Rich countries – often the largest greenhouse gas transmitters – had rejected this claim and only conceded the holding until 2024 of a “dialogue” on the “methods” of funding. Rather than a specific “trustee fund”, some countries, such as France, rather lean for the financing of “concrete projects”, specifies the French Ministry of Energy Transition.
Rich countries should also once again be remembered in Kinshasa that they still do not respect their commitment to bring to $ 100 billion per year their aid to developing countries to allow them to combat climate change. This claim of “climate justice” was one of the watchwords of a recent demonstration in Kinshasa of young Congolese activists who, like young people around the world, ask that the international big guys “act”, rather than to make “unwarmed promises”.
The DRC will also take advantage of the pre-copy to present itself in “solution country”. In addition to its resources in flagship minerals of the energy transition (copper, cobalt, lithium …), the immense country in Central Africa has some 160 million hectares of tropical forest, which makes it a “green lung” capable to absorb carbon and contribute to the fight against climate change. To preserve it, the DRC requests international financial support, while claiming its right to exploit its oil.