“You plan to cut off power to the whole of Africa”

In Nigeria, half of all food is still cooked over an open fire. The country’s government wants to electrify the countryside with the help of natural gas, which needs funding. Wrong way, Britain hopes to launch an international alliance to ban aid and loans for oil, coal and natural gas in the first week of the climate summit. The advice of African countries is to invest in sun and wind instead.

– This is hypocrisy, why not allow natural gas to continue in Africa’s energy mix? Donor countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom plan to keep natural gas until 2040, but they want to cut off electricity to the whole of Africa. This is neo-colonialism. The most outrageous thing is that Professor Orek believes that African leaders have not even been consulted.

Betrayed promises

But the alliance has the support of 200 international organizations. The European Investment Bank (EIB) has decided to stop funding fossil energy projects from the end of 2021.

– Green change requires investments in renewable energy. Judith Coke, the UK’s ambassador to Sweden, says foreign investment in oil, coal and natural gas is unaffordable.

The failed promises of climate aid have caused a crisis of confidence ahead of the Glasgow summit. As early as 2009, the richest part of the world pledged $ 100 billion – climate aid to developing countries every year from 2020, helping to tackle climate change that they have not historically been involved in creating. But the money has been massively converted into debt and so far nearly $ 80 billion has been disbursed.

India, which informally guides the actions of developing countries during climate negotiations, is annoyed that old promises have not been fulfilled, while there is now strong pressure to join countries that promise net zero emissions by 2050.

– The finish line is moved all the time. Indian Ambassador to SVT Thanmaya Lal has said that new promises cannot be made if old promises are ignored.

The question of fate

British Ambassador Judith Coke believes that pressure to tighten climate promises will lead to progress in Glasgow, even though large emitting countries such as China, India and Brazil have not brought in new climate promises.

– We all know how short time and the question of destiny are. The Glasgow meeting is not the last chance, but the best chance to keep alive the target of the Paris Agreement with a maximum of 1.5 degrees warming.