KINSHASA (CU)_ There have been multiple discussions in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where although it has been very much informal it meant to let other countries and green groups come in and take stock and understand the political position of COP27.
COP27 is the United Nations’ climate gathering of all world leaders and it is taking place in Egypt early in November 2022. There is an opening ceremony that will take place in the Congolese parliament building in Kinshasa, followed by discussions on mitigating climate change, and providing funding for countries already been severely spoiled by global heating and severe weather.
Delegates from about 50 countries are expected to attend the talks, including John Kerry, the climate envoy for the United States. A diplomat stated that “The emphasis will certainly be on support from industrialised countries to countries in the south”.
The previous UN climate summit COP26, held in Glasgow in November 2021, reaffirmed the goal which was agreed in Paris in 2015 which was of limiting the rise in the Earth’s average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C.
That goal may already be beyond reach as the Earth’s temperature is already 1.2°C higher than before the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. Countries that are not as financially stable or even classified as poorer nations had made strong efforts for a financial mechanism to address losses and damage caused by climate change. But wealthier nations who also happen to be the largest polluters made no qualms in rejecting that call and the participants agreed instead to start a “dialogue” on financial compensation for damages.
Climate justice
Egypt who will be hosting COP27, has made a pledge to curb global heating the priority of the November summit. It looks like the poorer countries will have to again make it a point to remind their richer counterparts of the need to increase financial support. The countries who are richer have up to now failed to deliver on their promise to provide $100 billion a year to help developing countries limit climate change.
There has been protest in Kinshasa earlier on and the demand which were the center of this protest had been for climate justice. The young Congolese activists chanted slogans and demanded that world leaders take swift action rather than repeat old promises. The Congolese government is also expected drive home the message that it requires funding to protect its vast rainforests, which act as a carbon sink.
There is about roughly speaking 30 billion tonnes of carbon which is stored across the Congo Basin, reports done have estimated this in a study for Nature in 2016. The figure is roughly equivalent to three years of global emissions. However, the central African nation in July launched an auction for 30 oil and gas blocs, ignoring warnings from environmentalists that exploiting them could harm ecosystems and release vast amounts of heat-trapping gases.
As a known for being one of the poorest countries in the world, the DRC has argued that drilling for oil and gas could be a massive step towards the diversification of its economy and benefit its people.
