Ramaphosa sends a message to the IMF, World Bank and ‘rich’ countries
President Cyril Ramaphosa says that ‘rich’ countries in the global north have an obligation to make funds available to developing countries like South Africa to help them transition to low-carbon economies – because they’re the ones who have contributed most to climate change.
Writing in his weekly letter to the public, Ramaphosa reflected on the two-day global summit on financing development and climate action in developing economies held last week.
The president said that while summits seem like a world away from the daily struggles South Africans face, if leveraged correctly, they could be incredibly beneficial in resolving problems like load shedding, poverty and crime.
South Africa has suffered due to years of low economic growth, a deteriorating power situation, corruption, crime and the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, the president said – however, these issues have been exacerbated by climate change, which has led to natural disasters that have left poorer communities decimated.
“Poor communities and countries are most vulnerable to the effects of global warming, and yet they carry the least responsibility for causing climate damage,” he said.
“That is why South Africa and many other countries have maintained that the industrialised countries that have contributed most to greenhouse gas emissions have a responsibility to fund the actions that less industrialised countries need to take to protect their people from climate change.”
Ramaphosa said that rich countries have spent decades developing their societies through economic activities that have caused the current climate crisis – but have now set global goals limiting these activities for others, like South Africa. Therefore, they should foot the bill.
“We do not want to be treated like beggars, as if we are asking for charity. The industrialisation and economic development of the Global North was achieved at the expense of the Global South.
“Wealthier countries, therefore, have both an obligation and an interest in supporting development and climate action in poorer countries,” he said.
To aid this, Ramaphosa said that there needs to be a “fundamental overhaul” of the international financial institutions that are responsible for supporting development across the world – such as the IMF and the World Bank.
“These bodies should be restructured to be more inclusive and responsive. They should provide funding in a way that does not increase the debt burden of countries that are already struggling to service their debt,” he said.
“The international community must appreciate the scale of the challenge and make sure that sufficient funds are available.”
The president said that industrialised countries need to start meeting their existing commitments, such as mobilising $100 billion a year for climate action in developing economies. But even this is not enough, he noted.
“Much more money will be needed to ensure an effective response to climate change. South Africa’s own Just Energy Transition Investment Plan, which was released a year ago, estimates that our country alone would need around $98 billion over the next five years to enable a just transition towards a low-carbon economy,” he said.
South Africa has been seeing an influx of interest from industrialised economies looking to get in on the Just Energy Transition. Previous talks have yielded around $8.5 billion from these nations in green energy funding in the form of loan agreements, while more recent talks have added billions of dollars more to the mix.
“This funding will also enable us to develop new industries, such as electric vehicles and green hydrogen, which will increase our industrial output and create jobs for the economy of the future.
“Through such funding, we can increase our investment in infrastructure, expanding the capacity of our economy and reducing the costs for emerging businesses,” Ramaphosa said.
Read: Eskom signs new agreement with the Netherlands to help in the move away from coal
Loading ...