Cape Town - The annual UN conference on climate change, COP27, started in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, this week with world leaders at the event under pressure to make and implement the necessary decisions to halt the world’s worsening climate crisis.
Environmental groups and activists in South Africa are watching the event – taking place over the next fortnight – with keen interest, although most are not optimistic the 27th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as it is officially known, will deliver what is needed to avert a climate disaster.
Katherine Robinson, head of campaigns at Natural Justice, said they were not optimistic about COP27 due to the repeated “greenwashing” and lack of political will displayed by governments, especially those of the global north.
“That said, we absolutely have to remain hopeful and resolute in our demands for climate justice broadly, and an energy transition that is truly just and centres on climate justice and human rights,” Robinson said.
During negotiations ahead of the event, South Africa’s Environment Minister Barbara Creecy said COP27 had to deliver meaningful and substantive progress on adaptation, loss and damage, and the means of implementing support for African and other developing countries.
“Despite having contributed insignificantly to climate change, Africa has continued to make substantial investments towards climate change adaptation, using mostly its own domestic resources,” Creecy said.
She said this was made necessary by the failure of developed countries, which bore a historical responsibility, to fully honour their obligation to provide support to developing countries, as well as inadequate or inappropriate multilateral and private sector financing.
May Boeve, executive director of environmental organisation 350.org, said: “We are here to remind global leaders of their responsibilities towards a just transition, press them to align finance flows with the goals of the Paris Agreement, and particularly in the case of rich nations, challenge them to pay the debts they owe to countries in the Global South for decades of exploitation.”
Greenpeace Africa climate and energy campaigner Nhlanhla Sibisi said: “There is a movement of people who care about social and environmental justice, and that movement is growing. COP27 is an opportunity to drive change, and Greenpeace Africa would welcome an outcome that enables the just transition to make progress in South Africa.”
Sibisi said Africa was a key stakeholder in resolving the climate crisis, and the voices and perspectives of people from the continent – activists and front-line communities – needed to be represented as the conference progresses.
On Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa co-chaired a high-level roundtable session that explored approaches to addressing climate change in the context of the so-called Just Transition, inspired by the South African Just Energy Transition Partnership.