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South Sudan demands climate justice at COP29

By Kei Emmanuel Duku

 

South Sudan calls on developed nations to allocate more funds under the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) to help developing nations cope with the devastating impact of climate Change.

South Sudan’s Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, Pal Mai Deng made the call at ongoing  COP29 meeting at Boku in Azerbaijan.

Once developed, the New Collective Quantified Goal aims to establish a more ambitious and realistic financial framework post-2025.

Mai argues that operationalizing these funds will help developing nations collect, analyze, and disseminate early warning information about weather conditions for the local population to make informed decisions.

As of last week, it is estimated that about 1.4 million South Sudanese have been affected by floods across the country, the Minister stated the Climate Global Fund is critical because it helps strengthen developing nations’ capacity to respond to natural disasters such as flooding through investing in climate-resilient infrastructures and other environmental sustainability programs.

“If undeveloped nations are to cope with the impact of climate change, we need to move away from the discussion to implementation or actions, there should be a deliberate commitment to increased funding by developed nations and create efficient technical support for the suffering global South,” said Mai.

He explained that under the NCQG on climate change module, the worst affected countries by climate change be prioritized and should be able to have access to the Global Climate Fund based on the vulnerability criteria.

Mai added that the COP29 there is a need for urgency to act, on the needs and priorities of developing countries and turn the NCQG after the COP29 into a milestone COP29.

He, however, said despite a commitment in the Paris Agreement by the biggest carbon emitters to cut pollution by limiting global temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius and further efforts to reduce it below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the developed nations have failed to hit the targets.

The Water Resources and Irrigation Minister called on the developed countries to accelerate Climate Actions to achieve targets set by the Paris Agreement and they reduce carbon emissions by adopting zero carbon emission technologies.

During the COP21 held in Paris France, developed countries committed to providing financial assistance to developing nations to help them adapt to climate change and transition to renewable energy sources.
An annual budget of $100 billion was set to be mobilized from developed countries for climate shocks however since then the money has not been provided for the affected countries.

Mai said the developed nations should honour their financial pledge to help the developing countries cope with the effects of climate change.

“The developed nations need to put aside their difference on who pollutes to what extent and then come together to fulfil their financial obligations to help the developing countries cope with the climate crisis by enabling their resilience to adapt to adverse impacts of climate change while having the obligation to reduce carbon emission,” he said.

“In this specific aspect, we must see the best approach for carbon trading. For example, countries like South Sudan have huge potential for carbon trading. The question is how we can make it more suitable with the existing context of South Sudan” he added.

The New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) is a significant global initiative aimed at establishing a new financial target to support developing countries in addressing climate change.

Once adopted, it will help build upon previous commitments made at the Copenhagen Climate Summit, where developed countries pledged to mobilize $100 billion per year by 2020 for climate-related activities in developing countries, with discussions ongoing at the COP29 to determine the exact amount and structure Global Climate Fund, this new target will consider the urgent needs and priorities of developing countries in their efforts to combat climate change.

 

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