One month before the annual UN climate conference, which will open in November in Egypt, the environment ministers of some sixty countries are meeting on Monday, October 3 in Kinshasa (DR Congo), to a "pre-COP".

Organized in Africa, it should call on rich and polluting countries to assume their responsibilities and put their hands in their pockets.

This type of preparatory meeting is not a framework for formal negotiations but should allow different countries, groups and organizations to take stock of possible progress and obstacles to be feared during the COP27 on climate change scheduled for Sharm-el- Sheikh from November 6 to 18.

After the opening ceremony at the people's palace, seat of the DR Congo's Parliament, the participants will discuss for two days around the usual themes of climate negotiations: adaptation, mitigation, finance, "losses and damages".

Many bilaterals will also take place between Europeans, Africans, Asians, Americans, the United States being represented by their special envoy for the climate, John Kerry.

Heavy bill to pay for adaptation

“Doing more” to fight against climate change and to help poor countries deal with it: the tone was already set at the start of the preparatory meeting.

As expected, COP and pre-COP being organized on the African continent, the accent was placed from the first interventions on the accompaniment of the countries of the South by the industrialized and polluting countries.

In their opening speeches, the Prime Minister of DR Congo, Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde, and his Minister of the Environment, Eve Bazaïba, recalled that Africa is "responsible for only 4% of global emissions". of greenhouse gases and "sequesters more than it emits".   

But, they said, like all other developing regions, it will find it increasingly difficult to "make a choice" between the fight against "the extreme poverty which is decimating it" and "the heavy bill to pay for adaptation to climate change", if the industrialized countries do not offer it "substantial technological and financial alternatives".

"We need oxygen, we also need bread", launched Eve Bazaïba.

At the previous COP, in November 2021 in Glasgow, the international community reaffirmed its objective of containing global warming to 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era, a target set in 2015 by "the 'Paris agreement' but for the time being out of reach, since we are already at nearly 1.2°C.

The poor countries had asked, for their part, for a specific mechanism to take into account the "losses and damages" (or "damages") caused by climate change, to which they are most exposed.

The rich countries, often the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, had rejected this claim and only conceded the holding until 2024 of a "dialogue" on the "modalities" of financing.

"All the issues on the agenda are important", but when it comes to financing, "the picture is not reassuring", acknowledged the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sameh Shoukry, President of COP27.

>> To read - COP26: coal, "losses and damage", deforestation... What does the Glasgow Pact contain

?

The DR Congo, "country solution"?

On all the items on the agenda, Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General of the UN, also admitted that "progress" was essential, in particular on "losses and damage", in the name of "solidarity international" and "trust".

The Congolese Minister of the Environment deplored a "tendency to trivialize the non-respect of international commitments", such as increasing to 100 billion dollars per year aid to developing countries to enable them to fight against climate change.

Regarding "access to climate funds by forest countries", Eve Bazaïba regretted that the conditions imposed are real "barriers", according to her.

DR Congo is taking advantage of the pre-COP to present itself as a "solution country".

In addition to its resources in key minerals for the energy transition (copper, cobalt, lithium, etc.), the huge Central African country has some 155 million hectares of tropical forest, which makes it a "green lung "capable of absorbing carbon and contributing to the fight against climate change.

But the government also defends the country's right to exploit its oil, a project strongly criticized by environmental organizations.

The Congolese Prime Minister recalled that certain European countries had "returned to the use of polluting energy sources which they had previously banned", in order to compensate for the energy deficit caused by the war in Ukraine.

We must avoid "falling into arbitrariness, with some States free to continue or even increase their emissions, and others prevented from exploiting their natural resources", he asked.

"Our forests are dying at a crazy rate, we children are the first victims", came to say at the ceremony about fifty children, asking the leaders seated in front of them to "do more" to bequeath them a breathable world.

With AFP

The summary of the

France 24 week invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 app