Mohamed Adow

The world is just days away from a global climate summit where the primary focus will be to decide how the historic polluters of the Global North will provide climate finance to countries that need it.

This great moment has been made possible by the concerted efforts of negotiators from the Global South, whose forceful determination has led to the COP29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, being designated the “finance COP”.

Carbon credits have long been mistakenly portrayed as a silver bullet that will both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fund global development. But critics warn they are merely a cover for rich companies and countries to carry on polluting. 

Recently, those critics were proven right again. Reuters reported that a leaked document from staff at a corporate watchdog that audits companies’ climate plans said that “some or most emission reduction credits are ineffective in delivering emissions reductions”.

We stand on the verge of a truly historic moment in the history of humankind.  That may sound like a rather overblown statement, especially to say about COP28, a U.N. process which is known too often for inaction and “blah blah blah” to quote Greta Thunberg’s description.

But it’s possible that, within days, the world may have agreed that the fossil fuel era must end and will have set the date for its demise.

Africa stands on the cusp of sweeping economic development. Whether this development is powered by clean renewables, or dirty fossil fuels, will go a long way to determining if the world meets the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C.

The youngest continent on Earth is finally coming of age. This will bring exciting opportunities and, equally, great expectations. Africa, though, has many structural challenges, including, poverty, hunger, conflict, debt and limited access to energy - all of which continue to hamper progress.

The most celebrated prize from the recent COP27 climate summit in Egypt was the creation of a “loss and damage” fund to compensate poor and vulnerable communities suffering the impacts of climate change.

But there was another breakthrough made in Sharm El-Sheikh that isn’t getting the headlines but has the potential to unlock trillions of dollars for climate action.

International climate change conferences are a weighty enterprise—one that needs to be held up by solid pillars of action, not just warm words and hot air.

The upcoming United Nations climate event in Egypt in November, COP27, will be no different. It will only hold up if supported by key pillars, but none is more robust for Africa than international climate finance.