UN
Global Climate Action
1
August
2022 | |
High Level Climate Champions
Newsletter | |
Climate Investor Roadshow Starts in
Africa | |
A series of
regional
forums kicks
off in Addis Ababa today, aimed at accelerating
financial flows to the projects needed to
accelerate financial flows to the projects
needed to reduce emissions, build climate
resilience and advance the 2030 Sustainable
Development Goals.
These
roundtables – titled Towards
COP27: Regional Forums on Climate Initiatives to
Finance Climate Action and the SDGs – take place across
Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and
the Caribbean and are hosted by the incoming
Egyptian COP27 Presidency, the UN Regional
Commissions and the UN Climate Change High-Level
Champions.
Developing
countries entered the Covid-19 crisis with
significantly bigger debt vulnerabilities than
at the start of the 2008 financial crisis,
leaving them with constrained fiscal space in
which to build resilience to climate impacts and
respond to the pandemic.
Meanwhile,
developed countries and private sector investors
have yet to deliver the US$100 billion per year
of climate finance promised by 2020. The Africa
Group of negotiators has called for US$1.3
trillion per year to be made available from
2025.
The regional
forums will convene countries looking to raise
capital for critical climate projects and
initiatives, along with significant financial
institutions such as regional development banks
and members of the Glasgow Financial Alliance
for Net Zero. They will look at how best to
de-risk investments in developing countries and
help countries present their investment-ready
projects.
The schedule
of forums is:
Bangkok,
Thailand: 25 August
Santiago,
Chile: 1-2 September
Beirut,
Lebanon: 15 September
Geneva,
Switzerland: 20
September | |
City life
around the world is being pushed to the brink by
extreme, unbearable temperatures and the havoc
they wreak.
In the past
month alone, Shanghai issued its highest alert
for extreme heat for the third time this summer,
requiring construction and other outdoor work to
be reduced or paused. London saw the highest
number of fires since World War II, and flights
at Luton Airport halted due to a melted runway,
as the capital breached a record 40 degrees
Celsius. Tehran experienced power outages due to
a heatwave, compounded by a severe drought that
pushed up power prices.
If this
continues, major urban hubs will become
unlivable in the coming decades, even as their
populations multiply. Cities in developing and
emerging economies are most at risk. We can
avoid the worst impacts, by designing future
built environments to be more resilient to
climate change impacts and fit for a
zero-emissions economy by 2050.
The buildings
and construction sector is responsible for
nearly 40% of energy- and
process-related carbon emissions. That footprint
is set to grow, with two-thirds of people
expected to live in cities by 2060. In Africa,
the floor area is expected to more than double
by 2050. But only half of the urban fabric
needed to accommodate this influx has so far
been built. So the decisions businesses,
investors, cities, regions and national
governments take today will determine how
liveable and resilient the built environment
becomes.
To reach net
zero by 2050, all new buildings need to operate
with net-zero emissions, whilst reducing the
buildings’ embodied emissions, by 2030,
according to the Race to Zero’s Breakthroughs report. Given the lag
time of around five years between design and
completion of a large building, change must
start now.
This makes
sound business sense. The shift to green
buildings in emerging markets alone offers a
US$24.7 trillion investment opportunity, and can
spur sustainable development, according to
the International Finance
Corporation.
Green buildings also offer sales premiums of up
to one-third higher than traditional buildings,
and sell faster. Their lower water and power
consumption reduces operational costs by as much
as 37%. And their construction can create
millions of skilled jobs, and lead to improved
health, equity and resilience.
It will also
save lives. Some 1 billion live in informal
settlements in homes that are vulnerable to
climate change, many with an iron roof that
leaks when it rains and in a heatwave can feel
like it’s cooking you. Yet little attention is
given to this challenge of improving existing
homes and building new ones in informal
settlements. Roof
Over Our Head,
a new initiative led by Slum Dwellers
International, is working to meet this challenge
by bringing communities, cities, architects,
industry and financiers together.
| |
The shift towards greener, more resilient
urban hubs picked up ahead of COP26 – but it
needs to accelerate.
The High-Level Champions worked with a coalition of business and
government groups to establish 26 climate
action initiatives announced for the sector at
COP26. Among those, 44 developers, designers and
asset managers representing US$85 billion in
annual turnover signed the World Green Building
Council’s commitment to reduce energy
consumption, eliminate emissions from energy and
refrigerants, and reduce embodied carbon from
new developments and renovations by 2030 and
ensure that all buildings reach net zero
operational carbon by 2050.
More businesses have signed up to the
commitment since COP26, including Africa
Logistics Properties which acquires, develops
and manages warehouses in East Africa; Deutsche
Bank, which has over 6000 buildings in its
portfolio; and Schneider Electric, according to
a recent status
report
by the World Green Building Council.
Governments are acting too. Austria has
brought forward a sales ban on new gas boilers
by two years to 2023, following similar moves by
the Netherlands and Germany. Colombia has
launched a national roadmap for zero-carbon
buildings by 2050, and 33 US states and local
governments have launched a coalition dedicated
to creating cleaner, healthier and more
affordable buildings.
Recognizing that
much of the growth will be in Africa, the World
Green Building Council’s Africa Regional Network
is developing a manifesto for sustainable
cities and built environments on the continent, which
will be released in the lead up to COP27. It
makes recommendations across five areas: energy,
water, materials, finance and infrastructure.
The draft manifesto is now open for public
consultation, with written comments due by 18
August through this
form. This will
be followed by regional roundtables ahead of
COP27.
| |
Latin America & the Caribbean Climate
Week | |
July’s Latin
America and the Caribbean Climate Week in Santo
Domingo brought together over 1,700 participants
from governments, multilateral organizations,
the private sector and civil society, with
events ranging from climate finance to the
building of resilience to climate change
impacts.
The Champions
hosted two Marrakech Partnership deep-dive
workshops. The Implementation Lab, which looked
at how infrastructure plans and financial flows
can benefit strengthening coastal resilience
while accelerating emission reductions in the
region. The Regionalization Workshop saw Mahmoud
Mohieldin, the COP27 High-Level Champion, and
Raquel Moses, Global Ambassador for the Race to
Zero and Race to Resilience, share the five-year plan for enhancing the
Marrakech Partnership’s ambition.
The Champions
also convened a session on collaborative
solutions for non-State action after impacts,
highlighting the role of businesses in
increasing resilience and shifting the focus
from philanthropy to investment, as well as an
open dialogue on the urgency of accelerating
financial flows for mitigation and adaptation in
the region and showing the immediate
implementation of NDCs. The Champions also
opened an event on the Global Stocktake, which
underlined the importance of inclusiveness,
regional balance and forward-looking
opportunities.
Mahmoud
Mohieldin took part in the Climate Week’s
opening and received the week’s outcomes from
Dominican Republic Acting Environment Minister
Milagros De Camps at the end, committing to take
the region’s perspectives forward.
Latin America
and the Caribbean have already been hit by
impacts such as drought, glacier melt, extreme
rainfall and deforestation, according to a
World
Meteorological Organization report released during the
week.
You can watch
all the week’s events here.
| |
Keeping Up With The
Champions | |
- Businesses,
investors and governments that are serious about
fulfilling net-zero emissions pledges should be
rushing to protect, conserve and regenerate
nature – yet the trailblazers are still
worryingly scarce, Nigel Topping and Mahmoud
Mohieldin wrote in Project
Syndicate.
- Mahmoud Mohieldin
spoke at the UN’s The
Africa We Want conference, in a roundtable
on preparing for an African COP27. He emphasized
the importance of addressing the special needs
of developing countries in mitigation,
adaptation and implementation.
- On the sides of
the Sydney
Energy Forum,
Mahmoud Mohieldin met Australia’s Climate Change
Minister Chris Bowen and invited him to
participate in COP27. He also met other
government officials and business leaders to
discuss mobilizing climate investments in Africa
and emerging markets.
- In Singapore,
Mahmoud Mohieldin discussed climate finance,
including mobilizing investments and setting up
carbon markets in Africa, with Teo Chee Hean,
the Coordinating Minister for National Security
and Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee
on Climate Change, and Tharman Shanmugaratnam,
the Coordinating Minister for Social Policies.
He also met the Director of the Monetary
Authority of Singapore and Chair of the APAC
GFANZ network advisory board, Ravi Menon, CEO of
the Singapore Stock Exchange Boon-Chye Loh, and
representatives from Singapore’s Sovereign
Wealth Fund, Temasek.
- In Cairo, Mahmoud
Mohieldin met representatives from the European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and
discussed how the bank can support the
Champions’ objectives for COP27. Efforts include
helping to mobilize the private sector and
supporting localization
initiatives.
- Mahmoud Mohieldin
attended a roundtable with renewable energy
executives including the Global Wind Energy
Council, Siemens Gamesa, Iberdrola, General
Electric, and Lekela Power Egypt, where they
discussed the important role that wind energy
firms can play in the energy transition and
COP27’s potential to be an implementation COP.
- Mahmoud Mohieldin met with
Seteve Varley, the Vice Chair for Sustainability
at Ernst & Young (EY) Global, and
participants from the Egyptian and UK office,
and discussed how EY can support the goals and
initiatives of the champions on the road to
COP27.
- Commenting in
The
Times on the UK’s
political leadership race, Nigel Topping warned
that any candidates wanting to water down the
national net-zero emissions commitment, and
supporting interim targets for 2030, is not
serious about the UK’s future.
| |
● The
Champions and Marrakech Partnership today
published their thematic programme for COP27,
mirroring the incoming COP27 Presidency’s
programme. Thematic days include finance;
science; adaptation and agriculture; energy and
gender; and biodiversity, youth and future
generations.
● The
UN
Secretary-General’s Expert Group on the
Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State
Entities has opened a public consultation
seeking ideas on how to ensure that net-zero
pledges are credible and matched by concrete
action. Submissions are due by 31 August through
this portal.
● The chairs
of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies are calling for
all stakeholders to submit inputs
to the first Global Stocktake, a
process designed to assess collective progress
towards achieving the Paris Agreement. Inputs
are due by 6 August.
● A
Western-dominated debate on reducing emissions
needs to include ways to adapt to climate change
and broaden energy access in Africa, according
to a report by the Mo
Ibrahim Foundation.
Financial pledges for adaptation remain “small
and most unrealized”, and the majority of global
financing goes to industrialized middle-income
countries for mitigation, it found.
● New
UN-backed guidelines aim to
protect, include and empower children who are
forced to flee their homes due to the climate
crisis. Nearly 10 million children were
displaced due to weather-related shocks in 2020.
● Egypt,
host of COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, has submitted
an updated
Nationally Determined Contribution covering
key sectors including energy, industry and
buildings, aligned with the country’s
development and climate policies.
● African
countries command a significant share of the
global industry that has become integral to
billions of people’s lives – coffee. Yet, there
is no guarantee that African coffee farmers will
reap their fair share of benefits from efforts
to develop a continental free trade area, which
also faces risks from climate change, Bogolo
Kenewendo, the Champions team’s Africa director,
wrote in Project
Syndicate.
● Converging
shocks to global food security have exposed
fragilities in global food systems, which
urgently need to be made more resilient, Agnes
Kalibata, former UN special envoy for the 2021
Food Systems Summit and global ambassador for
the High-Level Champions, wrote in Project
Syndicate.
● Carbon
capture and utilization or storage should play
three vital but limited roles in the energy
transition, according to the Energy
Transitions Commission:
decarbonize sectors where alternatives are
technically limited such as industrial
processes; deliver carbon removals needed in
addition to rapid emission cuts; provide a
low-cost decarbonization solution in sectors and
regions where CCUS is economically
attractive.
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