We are excited to be participating at this year’s Bonn Climate Change Conference (SB58) as representatives of the Women and Gender Constituency where together with other parties, we are part of drafting decisions to adopt at this year’s COP28 in the United Arab Emirates in December.
This process and space is critical because AMwA’s work lies at the intersections of feminist economic justice and feminist climate justice. Unless we address the systemic and structural barriers that hinder Africa’s and the Global South’s development, women and other marginalized groups who are also systemically marginalized in these countries will continue to be the ones to bear the brunt of the crisis.
Here are some issues, debates and key points that arose from a meeting we attended that was themed,
“Strategies to deliver gender responsive and socially inclusive climate finance at local levels” here are some of the key debates and issues that arose.
1) There was extensive debate around aligning the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance NCQG to Article 2.1C of the Paris Agreement in addition to aligning it to Article 9. Many developed countries appear to support this. However, developing countries insist that attempts to align the goal to Article 2.1C ignores the broader development objectives of developing countries. Besides reducing Green House Gases and enhancing resilience, developing countries also have the interest and desire to develop i.e. achieving the SDGs.
2) Developing countries also called for inclusion of discussions around the urgency to end illicit financial flows as part of the discussion around the NCQG on climate finance nothing that Africa already loses a significant amount through illicit flows that could have been used to finance meeting their broader development needs.
3) During the first day of the event, there was convergence around the fact that elaborating the quantum should be needs based. By close of the meeting developed countries appeared to shift this towards asking that the quantum should be politically guided. Also in this regard, they noted that the guidance would also include direction on whether funds should focus on investment needs or on support needs.
4) There was also emphasis on the need to reflect on Lessons from the $100 billion. If you have followed the UNFCCC, you are aware that developed countries have failed to meet their commitment to deliver this amount to developing countries to address climate change. General sentiments are that this failed because developed countries didn’t prioritize mobilizing public finance. While they present arguments that their private sector financing must also be counted, the Paris Agreement places obligations on parties and not non party actors.
5) The discussions thus emphasized the need to have public finance at the core of the NQGC on climate finance and that all non party contributions should be provided through parties.
6) The above point was further supported by the emphasis that the NCQG should be grant based finance.
7) Another issue that was also significantly debated was the issue around broadening the breadth of contributors. Developed countries were looking at this as an opportunity to get the private sector to be officially recognized as contributors. However, this was contested on the basis that the obligations as a signed under Article 9 are to developed countries i.e. parties and not non parties.
7) The meeting also discussed innovative sources for climate finance. This is a critical issue for attention for African feminist economist and feminist climate justice advocates as there are proposals around leveraging debt-for-nature-swaps, green bonds, green budgeting. All these solutions try to significantly divert attention from Article 9 which specifically places the obligation on developed countries to deliver finance to developed countries as well as diverting us from the demand for debt cancellation. Debt for nature swaps for example are not an adequate solution to the debt and climate crises as illustrated in this piece https://reliefweb.int/report/argentina/climate-action-network-position-debt-swaps for more information. Developing countries proposed innovative solutions like taxation, elimination of fossil fuel subsidies by developed countries.
Stay tuned on our social media platforms for more highlights!
