Sizwe sama Yende
The total amount of US $702 million (R12.9 billion) pledged by countries to the climate change Loss and Damage fund is just a drop in the ocean compared to what oil and gas companies are spending to explore new reserves.
Oil and gas companies are collectively spending $61.1 billion on exploration annually. This is about 10 times that countries pledged to the fund to help vulnerable countries bearing the brunt of climate change disasters such as floods and drought.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said this week at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, that this amount did not come close to “righting the wrong inflicted on the vulnerable.”
Countries pledged the $702 million at the COP28 in Dubai last year, and at that time it was hailed as one of the milestones of the conference.
According to a report by Urgewald, which has 40 partner NGOs all over the world, oil and gas production reached a historic high in 2023, which happened to be the hottest year as a result of climate change caused by use of fossil fuels.
Companies on the Global Oil & Gas Exit List (Gogel) produced produced 55.5 billion barrels of oil.
“This production record is deeply concerning. If we do not end fossil fuel expansion and move towards a managed decline of oil and gas production, the 1.5 °C goal will be out of reach,” said Head of Oil & Gas Research at Urgewald, Nils Bartsch.
The world is aiming to keep global warming at or below 1.5 °C as countries take measures to reduce carbon emission through using less fossil fuels and employing technology to control carbon emissions.
The Loss and Damage Fund is one of the issues at the focal point at COP 29, and industrialised and developed countries will be encouraged to donate more money.
This fund will help countries in the Global South who have had virtually no role in increasing carbon emissions as they are less industrialised.
Executive Director of the South African NGO, groundWork, and Friends of the Earth, Bobby Peek, said that Africans were already paying a terrible price for climate change, although the continent accounted for the smallest share of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“Lives and homes lie in ruins after catastrophes like this year’s devastating floods in Niger, Mali and Nigeria, and millions are facing acute hunger due to prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa. Paying for climate-induced loss and damage is a matter of justice and accountability, not charity,” Peek said.
In urging countries to open their cheque books, Guterres said that $702 million figure was roughly the annual earnings of the world’s 10 best-paid footballers. Guterres said that it did not even account for a quarter of the damage caused in Viet Nam by Hurricane Yagi in September.
“We must get serious about the level of finance required. I urge countries to commit new finance to the Fund. And to write cheques to match,” he said.
Urgewald is worried that the oil and gas industry was not transitioning towards lessening global warming as 95% of the upstream companies on GOGEL were still exploring or developing new oil and gas resources.
“This includes the oil and gas producers TotalEnergies, Shell, BP, Eni, Equinor, OXY, OMV and Ecopetrol, which all claim to be targeting net zero emissions by 2050. According to GOGEL, the short-term expansion plans of each of these companies show an overshoot of over 50% when compared to the IEA’s Net Zero by 2050 scenario. As if this wasn’t enough, these companies are collectively spending nearly $8.4 billion annually on exploration of new oil and gas fields.”