Picky Eating: Food Systems Get a Small Serving at COP28
At COP28, Food Systems were finally introduced onto the plate of a major UNFCCC negotiation text. However, it was only in the context of adaptation and GHG emissions from the sector still remain unaddressed.
IMO Mulls a Global Shipping Levy: Africa May Lose out While Others Gain
Following the agreement of revised targets for the shipping sector, the IMO is discussing the introduction of a global shipping levy. A group of African nations initially came out in support of but then went quiet during negotiations. A recent study anticipates that African GDPs will be significantly impacted by a levy whilst the GDPs of EU and the US stand to benefit.
Nigeria and Angola Initiate Moves Away from Fuel Subsidies
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has announced the removal of a 50 year long petrol subsidy, a move which may incentivise renewable energy technologies in an economy heavily reliant on diesel generators. Angola recently made a similar announcement. But will it stick as given past experience and as domestic fuel costs rise?
Guterres Calls for Developed Countries to Adopt 2040 Net Zero Targets
UN Secretary General António Guterres has called on developed countries to reach net zero as close as possible to 2040, and for emerging economies to do so by 2050.
Biodiversity Gets its Paris Moment: Climate Takeaways from COP15
In the early hours of the morning on 19 December 2022, the gavel came down on the 15th COP of the Convention on Biodiversity, hosted in Montreal under the Presidency of China. The outcome of the COP is the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), the product of more than four years of global negotiations. Some of the debates at the negotiations will be familiar to veterans of the climate negotiations, including on the ambition of 2030 and 2050 targets and their specificity, a lack of finance for developing countries to meet the targets, the ability of states to determine how to meet the global targets through national planning frameworks, the ratcheting of ambition, the protection of indigenous community rights and special dispensations and considerations for small island states and least developed countries. In our analysis we highlight some of the key aspects of the GBF, particularly as they relate to climate, focusing on the main targets agreed to. We also discuss the debates around finance, explaining why the DRC understandably objected to the final package that was presented. Lastly, we unpack the interlinkages between two regimes and how they can learn from each other going forward.
IEA Recommends EU Pursue a “You Collect We Buy” Approach for African Methane Gas to Meet Immediate Demand
The IEA recently released a report highlighting that the EU’s potential gas supply-demand gap could reach 27 billion cubic metres in 2023. It lists a raft of measures that the Union could adopt, including the import of methane gas that is ordinarily vented and flared in African countries. It encourages the EU to commit to a “you collect, we buy” approach to plug the gap in supply in the short term, focusing on ready to export markets in Algeria, Angola, Egypt and Nigeria.
World Bank Looks to Revise its Climate Lending
Earlier this month the World Bank released an “evolution roadmap” to change its mission, operating model and financial capacity with a view to expanding its lending capacity to address global crises such as climate change. It intends to negotiate this with its shareholders in April, with a view to it being approved by the joint World Bank and IMF Development Committee in October this year. Amongst various reforms, the Bank is questioning whether climate vulnerability could substitute poverty as a lending criteria. This could mean a new concessional fund that middle income African countries could access on more affordable terms.
Steel Tariffs, Deforestation Rules and the CBAM see Climate Change Increasingly Used to Justify Trade Measures.
It has been reported that the EU and US are considering new steel tariffs on climate grounds, the revised design and implementation date for the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism was recently announced, and an agreement has been reached in the EU to pass new legislation guaranteeing that imported products are not linked to forest destruction or degradation. In this week’s brief we discuss how States are increasingly using climate change as a justification for imposing new trade measures, and consider their implications for the African continent. It has been reported that the EU and US are considering new steel tariffs on climate grounds, the revised design and implementation date for the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism was recently announced, and an agreement has been reached in the EU to pass new legislation guaranteeing that imported products are not linked to forest destruction or degradation. In this week’s brief we discuss how States are increasingly using climate change as a justification for imposing new trade measures, and consider their implications for the African continent.
Post COP27 Developed Countries Keep Pursuing Fossil Fuel Projects
There has been much finger-pointing on which countries or regions were responsible for the failure to reach agreement on text to phase out all fossil fuels at COP27, with many developed countries expressing their disappointment on the lack of mitigation ambition. Yet many developed countries, particularly within the EU, are themselves concluding new fossil fuel deals, barely before the ink has dried on the Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan. Germany is considering spending €10 billion in investing in 10 new fossil fuel projects, France just restarted a coal plant, and the UK just approved its first coal mine after 30 years.
EU States start exiting the Energy Charter Treaty whilst African signatories increase
The Netherlands became the latest EU country to recently announce it would withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). Last week, Spain announced it would exit the treaty, and Poland is also in the process of withdrawal. There are concerns that the ECT locks signatory countries into unsustainable climate policies at the risk of litigation from oil and gas investors. Proposed draft amendments to alleviate this risk are considered insufficient and unclear. At the same time, African countries are increasingly becoming signatories to the ECT potentially tying the hands of government to freely design their climate policies.
