Q&A: Sierra Leone environment chief tells COP30 polluters must pay

BELÉM, BRAZIL - The world's largest polluters must pay for the damage they are causing in Sierra Leone, where climate change is having a "slow-burning impact" and degrading basic standards of living, the country's top environment official said.

Sierra Leone is among the 15 economies worst-affected by climate change, according to a World Bank report in June, and one of the world's poorest countries after a 1991-2002 civil war that killed more than 50,000 people.

The annual average temperature in the West African country by 2050 could rise as high as 28 degrees Celsius (82.4 degrees Fahrenheit) from a baseline of 26.5 C by 2050, and subsequent erratic rainfall and flooding may cause gross domestic product losses of 9% or 10% by 2050, the report said.

At the U.N. COP30 climate talks in the Amazonian city of Belém, Brazil, Sierra Leone is also seeking funds to protect its forests, including the new Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), a multilateral fund which the country is eligible for.

Jiwoh Abdulai, Sierra Leone's minister of environment and climate change, spoke to Context in Belém.

What are the main climate change challenges in Sierra Leone?

Extreme heat is one. But there are other real impacts, especially in rural communities. Extreme heat also comes with unreliable or irregular rainfall. That affects water supply, which affects food security. Food security and water supply - those are the basic things any human being needs to live.

We're not here (at COP30) because we want to have an abstract conversation about climate change. We're here because this is something that is affecting our people's daily lives.

What do you need, and who can provide it?

We need countries to honour their commitments. The Paris Agreement clearly states who's responsible for historical emissions and what their role should be in helping developing countries, especially the most vulnerable ones like Sierra Leone, to be more resilient.

We use the word resilient, and sometimes I think we forget what it means. It means people's lives.

How can we ensure that schools are not saunas or health centres are not saunas? How can we ensure that the livelihoods of rural communities are not drastically affected in such a way that it erodes development gains? That's the reality we face.

We can build resilience into food systems, into our infrastructure, our education, our health systems.

African countries have said they want to be 'the continent of solutions'. Is that being put forward here?

Africa has a lot to offer. Critical minerals is one. I think people focus on that, because historically Africa has been seen as a place to be exploited as opposed to a continent to be partnered with.

The more value we add here is not just going to help in terms of our development, but it just makes climate sense. You take the bulk mineral, (and) you ship it thousands of miles for value to be added, and then you ship it back. If you process it, then the volume you need to move back and forth is a lot less.

But we're sitting here in the Amazon, and forests and oceans are a big theme this year. A lot of what remains as real forest is in the tropics, and a lot of that sits in Africa.

We should think of forests as critical global infrastructure that humanity needs to survive, and we should fund forests that way.

Africa is ready to play its part, but for that to happen, we need to look at this as a partnership and value that infrastructure correctly and the services that are being provided.

You have this vicious circle where climate impacts have degraded people's standards of living and they look for other ways to supplement their income.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

(Reporting by Clar Ni Chonghaile; Editing by Jack Graham and Ayla Jean Yackley.)