Power Shift Africa’s Post

Transcript

Well, let's get you some analysis now. We're joined by Dean Bebe, who is a senior just transition and campaign adviser at Power Shift Africa. Dean, it's great to talk to you. Thanks very much indeed for joining us. And of course, you are still at the COP 29 gathering. It's interesting, isn't it, that these two important gatherings on the world calendar happening on opposite ends of the world. But there are so many parallel issues that play here. Especially insofar as climate change is concerned. Thank you so much for having me on the show. And yes, I 100% agree, particularly if you think around the outcome of the G20 summit could send really crucial signals to this COP on climate finance and other issues on the table. Because looking at the moment where the world currently stands at the brink of the climate catastrophe, wealthy nations might finally address their longstanding climate finance commitments. Historically, rich countries reluctance to provide adequate financial support has been one of the most shameful chapters in climate diplomacy and now more than ever. African leaders need to take this opportunity to remind the world that climate finance is not an act of charity, but rather a moral obligation or responsibility which is rooted on accountability. Yeah, I, I wanna just focus for a moment, Dean, if we can, on the COP 29 summit as we continue to keep our eyes on the G20 with those world leaders arriving there in Rio. But at COP 29, what are some of the more pressing issues, some of the things that are causing? Some kind of alarm, particularly, I suppose, when we think about President Trump and the fact that he will be going back to the White House. And if we think back to his previous tenure, of course, Trump pulled out of the Paris accord. What does this mean now for the discussions that are taking place at at COP 29? Yeah, thank you so much. I think it's quite important definitely to think around the president-elect coming back into power and Donald Trump in his climate finance commitments. And this has created a sort of attention point in terms of we've seen a lot of countries hiding behind the United States because then obviously the one of the world's biggest economies happens to be led by a climate skeptic. So this has really then caused the reply effectively see the new collective quantified goal, which is what would determine the amount of quantity and. Quality of climate finance that Africa is going to ideally receive and we see a lot of nations very nervous and backtracking a lot on that because obviously the United States is holding the playing cards. But however, this also does provide an opportunity for the world to actually have an actual leader who is climate oriented to fundamentally come up and step up. You know, Trump is dangerously behind the times looking at the fact that people are already dying from climate change around the world and hundreds of people just died in the US alone when hurricanes Milton. Lean race through and climate change is an existential threat, not a hoax. And the main cause of the problem is fossil fuels fundamentally. And his America first approach proves to be quite problematic, but it does provide an opportunity for countries to rise up and commit even further. And now is the time for would actually come together and not be detected by just one country. Yeah, as we discuss COP 29, the visuals on your screen showing you the G20 summit. It's 8:20 in the morning. In Rio de Janeiro and world leaders are arriving there. But I want to stay with COP 29 for just a moment. Dean. It's the third year now where the summit is being held in a country that is either a Petro state or has an economy that relies heavily on oil and gas. Are there discussions, at least insofar as activists are concerned, about the integrity of these talks? Ja, definitiv. Amen Amt. Really concerned by the statement from the COP 20, Nines was country president calling oil and gas as a gift of God. This short sighted ambition completely contradicts the mandate given to COP 29 to deliver an ambitious response to the climate crisis. It sends the wrong message at a critical moment as countries facing the severe impacts of climate change urgently need transformative action, not the doubling down on fossil fuels that approaches to the brink of collapse. Azerbaijan actually is home to the world's first industrial oil and it is only fitting. Like this is the very same place where the world finally agrees to a fossil fuel phase out, one that is fast, pay, feminist and fully funded. Africa cannot continue to be a platform where fossil fuel interests advanced while African communities continue to suffer. Yeah, I imagine that would be a difficult juggling act in the context of more and more fossil fuel interests being welcomed into the fold. I'm told this year more than 1700 fossil fuel. Lobbyists or industry players are registered to attend the talks. Yeah, definitely. We sleep 1700 fossil fuel lobbies across coming into COP 29 converging and we're trying to capture the space fundamentally at the core. And the message that they're trying to deliver most of the time has been fossil gas production actually is actually a green transition fuel, one that would be a required ingredient if the world and Africa in particular were to transition into a renewable energy future. However, as you know, science postulates. You know, fossil gas and the meetings coming out of that burn 100 times over in comparison to example to oil or coal for example. And looking at the idea and the dangers around postal Castro deduction, it being causing a long term aspect of stranded assets across the African continent. Which is why it's so important to realizing that Africa's climate conditions and ambition currently is constrained by the limited opposition of it being viewed as a taker. And this is due to the current structure of the global financial architecture which is detected. Really by a small elite of people who are for social elites and how it also limits their access to affordable and sufficient finance flows coming into African countries. And linked to this injustice is also the incontinence, increasing debt burden and the power imbalance this creates between African countries and their credit and their creditors. So this puts the developed world in a position to detect whether funding flows and when it flows and the associated terms and conditions of the funding. This leaves African countries highly dependent with limited leverage to determine the scale. Quality allocation of funding to meet the regions energy and developmental needs already as we speak because 600 million about energy access, but with this trajectory that we're continuing on by 20-30, we're looking at 750 million Africans without any access. So it is critical that countries actually rallied behind this. And much like the UK government, we actually have provided and committed to a much more ambitious climate target of 81% emissions reductions by 2035 and we believe that would be the right catalyst. That will cause a ripple effect for more countries to, to, to come up and step up. Yeah. And how does how does the G20 foot into the discussions at COP 29, particularly? Dean, I want to get your take on South Africa taking over the reins of the G20 in 2025. President Silva Maposa says he wants to use the presidency of the G20 for the development of Africa and the Global South. And no doubt issues around climate change will form part of that. Yeah, definitely. And I think the aspect is South Africa has an opportunity to finally set an agenda that is for African Empire African. So how do we attend the G20 to create this Pan African climate agenda? Thinking around how Africa cannot reproduce and extracted economic model that is historically destroyed our ecosystems and resulted in food and energy insecurity, poverty, socioeconomic exclusion and conflict as well as economic and ecological destructions. So looking at the G20. Respect. We need to 1st acknowledge that African economies have been historically locked at the bottom of the global value chain since colonial times and how we need to use this opportunity and acknowledge that Africa cannot continue to be the continent that provides cheap raw materials for others to feed the industrial development while also tackling the climate emergency. How do we use the G20 so that Africa can shift the narrative from being individuals that produce what they don't consume and consumer they don't produce? With over a billion people in 55 countries, Africa is already. Which diverse economies, resources, ecosystems, culture. Yet decades after independence, African countries continue to face famine, energy poverty, regional conflict, patriarchal oppression, economic and security, indebtedness, a host of other impediments. And these are just just at the taste of other structural development crises that are increasingly compounded by climate change. And now we've got this wonderful opportunity where the G20 is presenting a sort of African stance and African agenda and I believe. Africa has been given that opportunity to actually provide an usher in a new age that will actually unlock the right developmental pathways across the African continent. The South African president has also said that South Africa wants to use its presidency of the G20 to push for reforms insofar as the UN Security Council is concerned, including the inclusion of African nations within that organization. Is this, do you think, quite ambitious? Quite ambitious, of course. I mean, think about the world that we already leave. Then we look at the World Bank led by the United States. That means that they're gonna that's put up by the World Bank and the mandate is informed by the United States of America. Same goes for the African people comment bank. Same course as to how we understand how the United Nations Security Council is actually structured. So what's 0 is trying to do is quite ambitious and I do applaud him for that because the reality is in order for us to tackle all the structural deficits that the the continent. Happy faces, whether it's good or many energies of 90 low value added content on exports relative to imports, we need to actually tell the African story. We need Africans to come up with solutions for Africans. And the only way we're going to achieve that is to have pan African representation in the right rooms, in the right corridors where we can actually have those decisions by actual people who actually live through the crisis. South Africa has got the world's largest inequality gap. That problem cannot be solved by an American or European and that problem can be solved by an. By an African because we do understand our context, our break, our background and our lived experiences and what it means to be African and black during a time when they exacerbated by a climate collapse. Absolutely. Dean Beaver, let me thank you for your time this afternoon. Dean is a senior just transition and campaign advisor at Powershift Africa. He joins us live from COP 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. And of course, we're also reflecting on the G20 summit taking place in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. World leaders arriving now at the Museum of Modern Art.