Environmental Rights Organisation, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), has lamented the failure of the just concluded COP27 in Egypt to call for the phasing out of all fossil fuels, recovery of damaged environment, saying hope were shattered by the usual lack of seriousness in the discussions.
HOMEF Director, Nnimmo Bassey, in a statement in Abuja, recently said, the outcome of COP27 confirmed that it was just another COP with nothing
substantial in terms of reparations for centuries of harms and ongoing
ones.
“The COP could not be termed African COP because of its mere
geographical location, as Africans could not attend due to diverse restrictions while the corridors of the COP were filled with fossil
fuels promoters who attended to block decisions that would rescue the
world from the clutches of the industry.
“As an organization we saw the COP as mainly provides space for civil
societies to meet, prepare and share ideas on the way forward. Although
the COP ought to find ways to stop climate change, it has become a
carbon trade fair where false solutions including carbon trading and
carbon capture and storage are being promoted,” Bassey said.
Bassey lamented that the COP27 leaves vulnerable nations to contend with climate
impacts without any serious help that can be counted as additionalities.
He added that delaying action on loss and damage simply means tossing nations into
more famine, fires, and floods.
“Climate change continues to be driven by
development based on exploitation of peoples and the destruction of
Nature made in the guise of fighting global warming. If we must have a
livable future, the COP must be bold to act, especially with regard to
phasing out fossil fuels.
“This is not even being discussed! Rather than
opening doors to false solutions. The COP has transformed itself into a
platform for avoidance of climate action. We have come to an inescapable
moment when avoidance of real climate action can no longer be accepted.
Pay the Climate debt and leave the fossils in the ground.”
HOMEF the loss and damage agenda should not be considered as charity but as reparations for centuries of ecocide and damaging
activities.
Nigerian negotiators should see COP28 holding in the United Arab Emirates as a moment to press industrialized nations and polluting
entities to accept liability for the climate catastrophe and to make adequate annual payments for it. This should be addressed as a climate debt and in clear terms.
HOMEF noted that fossil fuels has been responsible for wars, climate harms and human rights abuses adding that funds invested in warfare should be channeled to funding the needed just energy transition and for tackling
the manifestations of climate change.
“HOMEF is concerned that the precious time is being wasted on non-solutions such as the promotion of unproven and risky technologies
including geo-engineering.
“HOMEF urges Nigeria and other African nations to realize that the 1.5
degrees temperature target set in the Paris Agreement is on track to be
exceeded judging from the Emissions Gap Report issued by UNEP.
To close that gap, the world will ultimately exit the petroleum era. This is the
time to get off the fossil train rather than risk stranded fossil fuel
assets by the coming decade. Africa cannot afford to be a stranded continent loaded with stranded fossil assets.
“A 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature increase above pre-industrial levels will be disastrous for Africa as the continent has temperatures above global averages. This reality makes taking climate caption more urgent for us than for most others,” he warned.
