To prepare for the November climate conference in Egypt, the environment ministers of around fifty countries are meeting in Kinshasa on Monday for a “pre-COP27” which, organized on African soil, should put the rich and polluting countries before their responsibilities.
There will be no negotiations strictly speaking or quantified announcements at the end of this meeting, a “pre-COP” being an informal meeting, precise for AFP Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, negotiator of the Democratic Republic of Congo at United Nations climate conferences.
But for two days, Monday and Tuesday at the People’s Palace, the seat of Parliament, ministers and high-ranking emissaries will multiply contacts and discussions to take stock of possible progress and blockages to be feared during the “COP27” conference on climate change scheduled for Sharm-el-Sheikh from 6 to 18 November.
At the previous COP, in November 2021 in Glasgow, the international community reaffirmed its objective of containing global warming to 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era. Set in 2015 by the “Paris agreement”, this goal is currently out of reach, since we are already at nearly 1.2°C.
Discussions have since taken place on how to achieve this ambition, but no significant progress has been made, particularly in terms of funding.
In Glasgow, the poor countries, the least responsible for global warming but the most exposed to its consequences, had asked for a specific mechanism to take into account the “losses and damages” caused by climate change.
Rich countries, often the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, had rejected this claim and a framework for “dialogue” had been created instead, to discuss until 2024 “modalities for financing”.
“The COP and the pre-COP being organized on the African continent, the accent will certainly be placed on the support of the countries of the South by the industrialized and polluting countries”, analyzes a diplomatic source wishing not to be named.
The Egyptian presidency of the COP also displays these financing issues as one of its priorities for the Sharm-el-Sheikh summit, which it wants to make an “implementation COP”.
– “Climate justice” –
This demand for “climate justice” was one of the main slogans of a recent demonstration in Kinshasa by young Congolese climate activists who, like young people around the world, demanded that international high masses “act “, rather than making “broken promises”.
The DRC will also take advantage of the pre-COP to present itself as a “solution country”, a slogan already used at previous meetings on the climate. Located in the heart of the Congo Basin, the huge Central African country has some 160 million hectares of tropical forest, making it a “green lung” capable of absorbing carbon and contributing to the fight against climate change. climate deregulation.
Before the ministerial component of the pre-COP, the government also organized in early September in the heart of the forest, in the Yangambi biosphere reserve (north-east), an “international scientific conference” on the contribution of tropical forests to the fight against climate change.
In their final statement, which will be discussed in Kinshasa, the scientists called on the international community to “support all initiatives” to preserve forests.
Because to preserve this treasure, threatened in particular in the DRC by slash and burn crops and the exploitation of “energy” wood (charcoal), Kinshasa, like other forest countries, is asking for financial support, so that neighboring communities have other sources of income, for electricity, roads, etc.
“The more resources will be made available to us, the more climate actions we can put in place”, assures Mr. Mpanu Mpanu.
Last Friday in Kinshasa, young Congolese activists demonstrated “for climate justice”, some under the banner of Greenpeace, denouncing in particular the recent auction by their government of 30 oil and gas blocks.
Like Senegal, which plans to begin exploiting its gas and oil reserves in the Atlantic in 2023, the Congolese government claims the country’s right to enjoy its oil revenues.
He promises that the exploitation techniques adopted will be respectful of the environment, but the activists consider this project to be in total contradiction with the image of a “solution country” that the DRC wants to present to the world gathered in Kinshasa.