A taste of COP27.

The countries of the South pleaded Tuesday, October 4 their cause and put the industrialized world before its responsibilities during the two days of the "pre-COP27" organized in Kinshasa, one month before the climate summit scheduled for November in Egypt. 

Ministers and environmental specialists from around 60 countries ended their discussions on Tuesday evening on the usual themes of climate negotiations: adaptation, mitigation, finance, "loss and damage".  

>> To read - In DR Congo, the "pre-COP27" sets the tone: "do more" for the climate and poor countries

"Bold" Talks

There was no final declaration, but it is the characteristic of these "pre-COP", places of "broken discussions", recalled Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, negotiator for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). at United Nations climate conferences.

“Countries can discuss in a bolder, more daring way, knowing that nothing will be imposed on them as a final conclusion,” he told AFP. 

Not everyone agrees, but all have "identified the urgency of climate action".

"From a climate diplomacy perspective, this is a success," he said.

The DRC's Minister of the Environment, Eve Bazaïba, who has been maneuvering for weeks to pilot this "pre-COP" co-organized with Egypt, also seemed satisfied by announcing during the day the forthcoming formation of a front common in the major forest countries of DR Congo, Brazil and Indonesia. 

It will be for them to present themselves in force at the negotiations on climate and biodiversity, to talk about the preservation of forest cover but also about "access to climate finance" and the "price per ton of carbon".

In the heart of the Congo Basin, the DRC had set the tone from the opening of the pre-COP. 

At the #PRECOP inaugural Roundtable discussion, #COP27 CPD Shoukry spoke about the state of play on the main issues identified ahead of COP27, namely, mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage and climate finance.

(1/2) pic.twitter.com/ZJICvCnYxX

— COP27 (@COP27P) October 3, 2022

Need oxygen and bread 

Like many other developing countries, the DRC will find it increasingly difficult to "make a choice" between the fight against "extreme poverty" 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. 

The Prime Minister, Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde, for his part, was angry with those who would like to prevent the DRC from exploiting its oil, while European countries have just reconnected with polluting energies to compensate for the energy deficit caused by the war between Russia and Ukraine. 

The Congolese government launched calls for tenders for 30 oil and gas blocks at the end of July, drawing criticism from environmental organizations.

They argue that oil exploitation in the forests and peatlands of the Congo Basin risks releasing large amounts of carbon. 

In front of the press, the American special envoy for the climate John Kerry indicated that Washington had asked Kinshasa to give up the blocks located in sensitive areas.

The day before, he had already judged it possible to "find a balance between the need to protect the Congo Basin and the requirements of development and job creation".  

The Congolese opening speeches were described as "virulent", even "going to war" by some participants in the pre-COP. 

But this meeting was “very useful”, considered, among others, the French Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. 

"Irreversible damage"

"I arrived here a little worried, given the geopolitical tensions" or "expectations and disappointments" since COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021, she told AFP.

"I leave with the feeling that this event has made it possible to tighten positions, to reiterate the urgency of action, to clearly define the areas on which we can move forward," she added. 

The subject of "loss and damage" (or "damage") caused by climate change will be discussed in Sharm-el-Sheikh, continued the minister, "because it is an essential question (...) which concerns all countries", facing "irreversible damage from climate change". 

You have to be "pragmatic", "have results" and "simplify access to funding", according to her, rather than "creating yet another fund that will arouse the same reservations..." 

Developing countries would like there to be "an institution to bring coherence" to what is already being done, noted Mr. Mpanu Mpanu.

"There is a bit of tension, not all countries see things the same way..." 

After the ministerial discussions, the "pre-COP27" ends on Wednesday with "side events", giving more voice to young people and civil society in the Congo Basin. 

With AFP

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