The countries of the South renewed their advocacy and held the industrialized world to its responsibilities during the two days of the “pre-COP27” organized in Kinshasa, one month before the climate summit. scheduled in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, from November 6 to 18, 2022.
On the evening of October 4, 2022, environmental ministers and specialists from around 60 countries completed their discussions on the usual themes of climate negotiations: adaptation, mitigation, finance, “losses and damages”. This meeting was an opportunity for multiple bilateral exchanges between Europeans, Africans, Asians and Americans..
Not everyone agrees, but everyone has ‘”iidentified the urgency of climate action”. “From a climate diplomacy perspective, this is a success”, judged Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, negotiator of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the United Nations climate conferences.
There was no final declaration, but it is the characteristic of these “pre-COP”, places of “broken discussions”, recalled Tosi Mpanu Mpanu. “Countries can discuss in a bolder, more daring way, knowing that nothing will be imposed on them as a final conclusion”he told AFP.
The Minister of the Environment of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Eve Bazaïba, maneuvering for weeks to steer this “pre-COP” co-organized with Egypt, also seemed satisfied by announcing during the day the forthcoming formation of a common front of the major forest countries of the DRC, Brazil and Indonesia.
“I arrived here a little worried, given the geopolitical tensions” or “expectations and disappointments” since COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021, French Energy Transition Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher 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 “losses and damage” caused by climate change will be discussed in Sharm-el-Sheikh, the minister continued, “because it is an essential question (…) which concerns all countries”faced with “irreversible damage from climate change”. In terms of financingIeveloping countries would like there to be “an institution to bring coherence” in what is already being done, noted Tosi 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 6 October with “side events”, giving more voice to young people and civil society in the Congo Basin.