These are some expectations of african Climate activists less than 2 weeks before the COP29 kicks off.
From November 11 to 22, the city of Baku, Azerbaijan, will host the twenty-ninth United Nations climate summit, COP29.
By Prosper HERI NGORORA
31 October 2024
Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo-This summit comes on the heels of COP28, held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where the loss and damage fund has been adopted by the participants.
While at COP28 many experts felt that the negotiators had concluded that this was the beginning of the end for fossil fuels, this issue could also come up at COP29 in Baku, with an urgent appeal to polluting countries to facilitate access to finance for developing countries that are heavily affected by the effects of climate change without being largely responsible for it due to their low greenhouse gas emissions.
“This COP in Azerbaijan will definitely be the COP of climate finance, and African countries should aim to be at the center of discussions”, said Fatuma Hussein, from the African negotiators’ group, on October 18, 2024, during a media briefing on the upcoming COP29.
Climate activists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are calling on Congolese negotiators to do everything in their power to ensure that the country, touted as a “solution country” to climate change, benefits from the forthcoming negotiations.
Justin Mutabesha, a Goma-based pro-environment activist, argues for flexibility in climate financing.
“We want the DRC to negotiate the transfer of technologies from developed countries to help us imagine and develop renewable energies and improve their efficiency in our countries”, says Mutabesha.
He also called on the Congolese negotiators to work to ensure that the world takes strong measures to preserve its biodiversity.
For their part, the DRC’s pro-climate negotiators don’t want to beat about the bush. They say they have certain priorities that will be highlighted during the negotiations in Azerbaijan.
Joe Malassi, one of the negotiators on the Congolese delegation to COP29, already has an idea of the issues that will be on the table.
In a telephone interview, he reveals that the carbon market, climate finance, the loss and damage fund and nature-based solutions to climate shocks will be the main lines put forward by the Congolese delegation.
Fatuma Hussein of the African negotiating group in Baku also revealed that the loss and damage fund, the full operationalization of the loss and damage fund and the conclusion of an agreement with the World Bank and the doubling of adaptation funding by developed countries are among the issues on which Africa is expected to focus in Baku.
