HASfter thirty years of paralysis, the COP27, which met in November 2022 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, reached a historic consensus: rich countries must create a fund to help the most vulnerable poor countries to in the face of climatic disasters. A decision that is only too fair, as science has long told us. According to a recent analysis published in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health, the United States and Europe are responsible for more than half of the world’s ecological destruction over the past fifty years. Moreover, it is the poor countries that are the most affected by extreme phenomena such as floods, heat waves, forest fires, etc., while the countries that contribute the most to carbon emissions at the origin from climate change remain relatively unscathed.
In fact, according to the World Meteorological Organization, the African continent produces only 2% to 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. However, the frequency of droughts has tripled there in thirty years, that of storms has quadrupled and that of floods has multiplied by ten. In addition, rising temperatures have contributed to a 34% slowdown in agricultural productivity growth since 1961 in Africa. It is estimated that a global warming of 1.5°C will cause a 9% decline in maize yield in West Africa and 20% to 60% in wheat yield in southern and northern Africa. ‘Africa. A trend that will aggravate food insecurity and malnutrition.
Now that an agreement has been reached on the creation of a fund, the most difficult remains to be done: a committee of twenty-four countries, rich and poor, must define the modalities of these payments. Developing countries must receive reparations for the damage they suffer. But they also need private investors and nonprofit investors willing to work with government officials to provide them with solid, long-term financing. We can no longer content ourselves with one-off investments in projects to reduce carbon emissions that are not integrated into major national economic strategies capable of operating the transformations imposed by climate change.
Clean energy technologies
For the world to successfully address the climate crisis, each country must get the help it needs to develop a strategy that suits its people. As we have recently seen in the United States with the infrastructure law [2021] and the Inflation Reduction Act [2022], we already have clean energy technologies and cost-effective low-carbon products and practices that can help us improve people’s lives. Deployment of these solutions on a large scale, across the developing world, is necessary to respond to the threats that climate change poses to the entire world.
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