African perspectives on COP29 in Baku
The 29th UN Climate Change Conference (COP29), which took place from the 11th to 22nd of November in Baku, Azerbaijan, ended last Friday. It is the highest decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). According to the UNFCCC, a total of 55,000 people from politics, business, science and civil society from almost 200 UN member states took part in COP29. With 634 delegates, Nigeria had the largest African delegation and the eighth largest ever, while Niger, with two delegates, represented not only the smallest delegation from Africa, but worldwide. The African representatives also included around twenty heads of state and government from the continent.
The main objective of the conference, held under the motto “In Solidarity for a Green World,” was to establish a new financing target starting in 2025 aimed at addressing the impacts of climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. COP29 resulted in an agreement on the provision of annual funding totalling 300 billion USD for developing countries. At the same time, the goal of mobilising investments of USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2035 was formulated, a project in which cooperation between public and private actors is to be intensified. In addition, the conference increased the Loss and Damage Fund by USD 85 million to a total of USD 760 million, into which state and private actors can voluntarily pay to finance climate-related damage.
The results of COP29 have been criticised by various actors from Africa. Even before this COP, African countries had expected to receive concrete pledges of USD 1.3 trillion in annual climate financing from the so-called industrialised nations and were accordingly disappointed. The chief negotiator of the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) at the UN climate negotiations, Ali Mohamed, also criticised the fact that there were no guarantees for the affected countries that the aid would be provided as grants and not in the form of loans, which would further increase the debts of low-emission countries. Even if the aim of the funding is officially documented, the form of implementation remains dependent on the arbitrariness of public and private actors. Furthermore, Mohamed criticises the fact that the COP29 did not set clear targets for climate change mitigation or adaptation measures to deal with the consequences of climate change.
Against this backdrop, Nkiruka Maduekwe, Executive Director of the National Council on Climate Change in Nigeria, even described the agreement as an insult and a joke. She referred to the responsibility of industrialised countries in causing climate change and condemned the measures adopted as inadequate and unrealistic to combat the consequences of climate change. Evans Njewa, Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group on Climate Change, criticised the fact that the necessary financial support for adapting to the climate crisis had not been forthcoming. As a result, years of work by the 45 LDC nations, including 33 African countries, to find constructive solutions have been thwarted and hopes for real climate justice have been dashed. The next UN Climate Change Conference, COP30, will take place in Belém, Brazil, in November 2025.
Debt conference in Zimbabwe
On Monday, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa welcomed high-level representatives of national creditors and financial institutions to the 6th Structured High-Level Dialogue in Harare. The platform, which was launched in 2022, serves as a platform for dialogue on the settlement of arrears and debt regulation for Zimbabwe, which has a total debt of USD 21 billion – of which around USD 13 billion is foreign debt and USD 8 billion is domestic debt. The aim of the talks, which were attended by the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, and ambassadors from countries including the United Kingdom, France, Canada and the USA, was to drive forward Zimbabwe’s efforts to settle its foreign debt and lay the foundations for its return to the international capital markets after an absence of over twenty years.
In order to restore access to concessional loans and release funds from international financial institutions, Zimbabwe must in particular clear its arrears and penalty interest, which together account for 55% of the country’s debt burden. At the meeting in the Zimbabwean capital, the country’s government declared that it was prepared to accelerate the process of clearing arrears and settling debts with multilateral institutions such as the AfDB, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank through cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of a so-called IMF Staff Monitored Programme (SMP), which is scheduled to start in January 2025. However, the IMF’s support is limited to technical assistance such as budget preparation, as Zimbabwe’s government missed its original target of submitting the SMP in April this year and another deadline last month. Adesina described the SMP as a key step in creating the conditions for the necessary political reforms in Zimbabwe and announced that the AfDB was prepared to support Zimbabwe financially both in settling arrears and in cushioning the economy against the possible negative effects of the reforms. However, Adesina did not give any concrete figures.
However, the targeted SMP is only part of the reform measures that the Zimbabwean government intends to implement as part of the process to pay off the national debt and arrears, which currently amount to 81% of the country’s gross domestic product. Mr Mnangagwa outlined a series of financial, governance and legislative reforms that his government has undertaken to improve the country’s macroeconomic stability, efficiency and accountability. These include the introduction of a new currency and a more flexible and transparent foreign exchange market, as well as the introduction of new draft laws to strengthen the fight against corruption. In addition, there are far-reaching reforms to land rights, which are intended to boost investor confidence, as well as a compensation package totalling USD 35 million for more than 400 farmers who lost their land as part of the controversial land reform under Robert Mugabe’s government in the 1990s. Observers see this as an attempt by the government to regain the trust of international investors and pave the way for stable economic growth. According to critics, however, this is not the first time that Zimbabwe’s government has lured creditors with ambitious reform plans. Rather, they point out that even after several announcements of ambitious reform programmes since the fall of Mugabe in 2017, hardly any progress has been made. In fact, the government had already adopted a stabilisation agenda several years ago, which was to be supported by an SMP. However, in February 2020, the IMF announced that this could no longer be implemented due to failures on the part of the government.
While Zimbabwe’s government is pushing ahead with the negotiations, it is under pressure to reconcile the ambitious reform commitments with the immediate economic realities. Against this backdrop, former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, who has officially acted as a high-level mediator at Zimbabwe’s request since the start of the dialogue process, called on the international community to further support the Zimbabwean government with the financial and technical resources needed to implement the ongoing reforms. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube predicted that the timetable for clearing arrears and implementing broader economic reforms by mid-2025 would become clearer if lenders agreed to provide bridging finance.
In other news
South African rugby player Pieter-Steph du Toit was honoured as the best player of the year in 15s rugby at the World Rugby Awards in Monaco on Sunday. The 32-year-old secured this title for the second time, having already won it in 2019, making him the first South African to do so. Du Toit, who was world champion with the South African national team – the so-called Springboks – in 2019 and 2023, was able to beat both his South African teammates Eben Etzebeth and Cheslin Kolbe, as well as the captain of the Irish national team, Caelan Doris. The prize was accepted by du Toit’s wife Willemien, as he himself had returned to South Africa beforehand due to a shoulder injury and was unable to arrive in time for the ceremony. Du Toit also performed outstandingly this year and was regarded as a key player in the team of national coach Rassie Erasmus. With 86 games for the national team, he is one of the Springboks’ most experienced players. During the November tour, in which the top nations of the rugby world come together in Europe for test matches, the team defeated leading rugby nations such as Scotland, Wales and England.
Obituary notice
The South African poet, writer and activist Breyten Breytenbach (1939-2024) died in Paris at the age of 85. As a critic of the apartheid regime, he spent seven years in prison before going into exile and publishing his works on exile, identity and justice.