Congo-Brazzaville’s Environment Minister Arlette Soudan-Nonault has decided to leave the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) before the end of the negotiations. She believes that the speeches of the heads of state led to nothing and that the virtues of the Congo Basin as the lungs of the planet were not recognised at their true value.
On the afternoon of 14 November 2022, the Congolese Minister of the Environment announced on her Facebook profile that she had abandoned the 27th United Nations Climate Conference (COP27) before the end of the negotiations. For Arlette Soudan-Nonault, the speeches of the heads of state present at this summit led to nothing and the virtues of the Congo Basin as the lungs of the planet were not recognised at their true value.
« Why is this fist on the table? Because it is not normal, the specificity of Africa, which only emits 4% of global emissions, has not been taken into account. We have come to talk about adaptation, we have come to talk about mitigation, we are good at mitigation, but as responsible people, we must continue to reconcile mitigation and development, so we must move towards an energy transition with clean energy, so we need financing. « We also need, in the context of flooding, erosion and the impact of climate change on our lives, to have what is called financing for loss and damage, but this is another bone in our body: we are given the impression that we have created a new instrument, no! We simply need to put in place the two conventions that have always existed but have never been put into practice.
Failure to deliver on the promises of COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009
In an attempt to address this problem, world leaders at COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009 pledged to collectively mobilise $100 billion per year from 2020 to help developing countries adapt to climate change. But this promise has never been fulfilled.
« In recent years, many developing countries and activists have called for a fund to compensate poor countries for the devastation caused by climate change, for which rich countries are disproportionately responsible because of their past emissions. This call was rejected at last year’s summit (COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland), » says Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s foreign minister, who is also the president-designate of COP27.
Fanta Mabo
