COP27: US, China must pay their share to help poor nations deal with climate change – Prez Macron says
French President Emmanuel Macron said the US, China and other non-European rich nations must pay “their share” to help poorer nations deal with climate change.
“We need the United States and China to step up,” Macron said on the sidelines of the COP27 summit in Egypt, AFP reported.
More than 100 world leaders have started arriving in Sharm el-Sheikh for the UN’s annual climate change summit, attempting to maintain momentum in the battle to curb planet-warming emissions.
Despite an early breakthrough that put the issue of compensating poorer countries for the impact of climate change on the agenda for the first time, delegates are downbeat on prospects for big new commitments.
Rising energy prices, accelerated by Russia’s war in Ukraine, have led many governments to prioritize security of supply over the transition to cleaner energy.
Global emissions need to start falling rapidly before 2030 if the world has any chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celcius. But they will likely hit a record this year. Countries from Pakistan to the US have been hit by unprecedented climate disasters.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Macron and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are among the biggest names expected at the start of the two-week event. US President Joe Biden and Brazil’s President-elect Luis Inacio Lula da Silva are due to appear later on.
The most notable no shows are China’s Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi, leaders of the world’s largest and third-largest emitters.
African NGO says Europe is using Africa as a ‘Gas Station’
Mohamed Adow, a prominent activist and director of the energy and climate think tank Power Shift Africa, accused the EU of using the continent as a “gas station” as it seeks to end its dependence on Russian fossil fuels. EU leaders are set to speak at the COP27 conference on Monday.
Singling out German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in particular, Adow said that Europe’s dash for gas was threatening to lock Africa into polluting fossil fuels, rather than pursuing greener alternatives such as renewables. Germany and the EU have been trying to seek new gas supplies from countries like Algeria and Senegal, while Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson has encouraged the North African nation to conduct more gas exploration.
“Our continent is at a crossroads,” Adow said at a press conference alongside the Climate Action Network. “The message we want to send to Scholz as he comes here is that the days of colonialism are over. We won’t accept energy colonialism.”
Lagarde says ECB closely watching impact of Climate Change
“Our primary objective is to keep prices stable,” European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde says.
“That is the compass guiding every one of our actions, now more than ever. To deliver on this core responsibility, we need the full picture on all factors affecting inflation so that our policies remain effective.”
US to Outline Carbon Credit Plans for Developing Nations
The US is on track to outline this week initial plans for using new carbon credits to rapidly scale up financial investment in green energy projects in developing countries. The initiative follows months of talks by US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry with Wall Street and philanthropic groups.
The new framework is meant to be built out over the next year. That would allow time to develop program details, including environmental integrity provisions, said a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the plan is not yet public. There are also efforts to ensure any new carbon trading program is aligned with science-based targets and includes safeguards to ensure a just energy transition.
Any new carbon credit program would be greeted by skepticism. For years, carbon-market experts have warned that renewable-energy offsets are no longer fit for purpose. As solar and wind power have become the cheapest source of power in the vast majority of countries globally, it’s getting harder to prove that paying small sums as offset payments is causing those countries to stop the development of coal or gas power plants.
