Climate Change: South Africa May Hold the Key to Global Net Zero
What can rich countries do to help the developing world battle climate change? What’s happening in South Africa right now embodies that central question of fairness.
Africa’s third largest economy is also the world’s 12th most serious emitter of carbon dioxide. At COP26 in Glasgow last November — where I worked with the British government — the UK, US, France, Germany and the rest of the EU joined together to allocate $8.5 billiion in seed money to South Africa. It’s the world’s first Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), a crucial effort to ease the economic and social disruptions that poorer countries face as they attempt to lower their carbon footprints.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate diplomacy
Talks are well underway in preparation for the next major international meeting on climate change, 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28), scheduled to begin Nov. 30 in the United Arab Emirates.
Much like last year’s COP27, finances — specifically, aid to developing nations — will be at the center of conference deliberations.
The conference faces an even greater sense of urgency brought on by the Sept. 8, 2023, release of the first global stocktake, which calls for accelerated action to meet the goals set in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement (COP21).
Climate diplomacy: COP 27 | Climate diplomacy: COP 28 | Climate diplomacy: COP 29
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”