<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="604" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/26878923862_63c80afa84_o-820x604.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-413245" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/26878923862_63c80afa84_o-820x604.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/26878923862_63c80afa84_o-300x221.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/26878923862_63c80afa84_o-122x90.jpg 122w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/26878923862_63c80afa84_o-768x566.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/26878923862_63c80afa84_o-1536x1131.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/26878923862_63c80afa84_o-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina, President, African Development Bank (AfDB) World Economic Forum | Kigali, 12 May 2016 Photo: via Flickr</figcaption></figure>



DAKAR, Nov 4 (Reuters) &#8211; Gas remains critical for African economies despite the global push to end investments in fossil fuels as the world transitions to cleaner fuels, African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina said on Thursday.



Adesina, a Nigerian economist, said that Africa, where around 600 million people are without access to electricity, is still trying to build just energy systems.



The bank is one of the backers of Total&#8217;s $20 billion Mozambique liquefied natural gas project.



Adesina said despite increased investments and access to electricity, particularly from renewables, there were limits with the currently available technologies because Africa needed steady power supply to grids and stable baseload for industries.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-read-more-covid-19-has-cost-30-million-african-jobs-african-development-bank-says">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/covid-19-has-cost-30-million-african-jobs-african-development-bank-says/">Covid-19 has cost 30 million African jobs, African Development Bank says</a></h3>



&#8220;Therefore, gas is fundamental to Africa&#8217;s economic survival. I see gas as an important part of Africa&#8217;s energy mix,&#8221; Adesina told Reuters on the sidelines of the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.



Several African countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Mozambique are dependent on oil and gas, and are counting on recent discoveries not only to boost revenues, but also to provide steady gas-fired generation.



&#8220;Even if Africa triples its use of gas to generate electricity, it will only contribute to only 0.67% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. Without gas, Africa&#8217;s economies will be killed,&#8221; Adesina said.



He added that the bank had made a decision to no longer fund coal projects.



&#8220;A week ago, our board approved our new policy. No more coal. However, we will support Africa to have a stable energy system, and gas is critical to that,&#8221; he said, adding that gas will prevent deforestation as a bulk of the population in the continent still depend on wood fuel and charcoal. 



(Reporting by Bate Felix; Editing by Paul Simao)

26878923862_63c80afa84_o

AfDB head says gas remains key for stable power supply in Africa

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="639" height="398" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/573c8592a390e84534d124faa4ab386b.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-413180" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/573c8592a390e84534d124faa4ab386b.jpg 639w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/573c8592a390e84534d124faa4ab386b-300x187.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/573c8592a390e84534d124faa4ab386b-144x90.jpg 144w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 639px) 100vw, 639px" /><figcaption>Britain&#8217;s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Democratic Republic of the Congo&#8217;s President Felix Tshisekedi and U.S. President Joe Biden stand before speaking at &#8220;Action on Forests and Land-Use&#8221; event during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, November 2, 2021. Erin Schaff/Pool via REUTERS</figcaption></figure>



GLASGOW, Nov 2 (Reuters) &#8211; Leaders at the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/cop">COP26 global climate conference</a> pledged on Tuesday to stop deforestation by the end of the decade and cut emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane to help slow climate change.



On the second day of the two-week summit in Glasgow, Scotland, wealthy nations took some overdue actions to provide long-promised financial help for the developing countries worst hit by global warming.



The United Nations conference aims to keep alive a receding <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/paris-glasgow-cutting-through-climate-jargon-2021-10-27">target of capping temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels</a>, to avert still greater damage than has already been caused by greenhouse gases.



British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, host of the event attended by almost 200 countries, said he welcomed the latest steps but urged caution.



&#8220;We must take care to guard against false hope and not to think in any way that the job is done, because it is not. There is still a very long way to go,&#8221; he told a news conference.



More than <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/global-watchdog-track-promised-cuts-potent-greenhouse-gas-methane-2021-10-31">100 countries joined a U.S.- and EU-led effort to cut emissions of methane 30% by 2030</a> from 2020 levels, potentially a step in stemming the overheating of the planet.



U.S. President Joe Biden chided Chinese President Xi Jinping for his decision not to attend in person.



&#8220;It&#8217;s been a big mistake, quite frankly, for China &#8211; with respect to China not showing up,&#8221; Biden said at a news conference.



&#8220;The rest of the world is gonna look to China and say what value added are they providing? And they&#8217;ve lost the ability to influence people around the world and all the people here at COP, the same way I would argue with regard to Russia.&#8221;



China said <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/china-says-xi-was-given-no-option-video-address-cop26-2021-11-02">Xi had not been given an opportunity to deliver a video address</a>, and had to send a written response instead. Xi offered no additional pledges.



China was represented in Glasgow by its chief climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua, who said in remarks to reporters on Tuesday that &#8220;five years were wasted&#8221; because Biden&#8217;s predecessor Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement and it was time to &#8220;work harder and catch up&#8221;.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-most-at-risk">MOST AT RISK</h2>



Leaders of developing countries most at risk from the effects of climate change, such as heatwaves, droughts, storms and flooding, told delegates the stakes could not be higher.



&#8220;Let&#8217;s work for the survival of ours and all species. Let&#8217;s not choose extinction,&#8221; said Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley.



The Global Methane Pledge, launched on Tuesday after being announced in September with just a few signatories, now covers countries representing nearly half of global methane emissions and 70% of global GDP, Biden said.



Methane is more short-lived in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide but 80 times more potent in warming the planet. Cutting emissions of the gas, estimated to have accounted for 30% of global warming since pre-industrial times, is one of the most effective ways of slowing climate change.



Among the signatories is Brazil &#8211; one of the five biggest emitters of methane, generated in cows&#8217; digestive systems, in landfill waste and in oil and gas production. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/australia-will-not-back-eu-us-led-pledge-cut-methane-emissions-2021-10-27">Three others &#8211; China, Russia and India &#8211; have not signed up, while Australia has said it will not back the pledge.</a>



The United States also unveiled its own domestic proposal to crack down with a focus on the oil and gas sector, where leaky infrastructure allows methane to escape into the atmosphere.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">LOST FORESTS</h2>



More than 100 national leaders also signed a promise to halt the destruction of the world&#8217;s forests which absorb roughly 30% of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the nonprofit World Resources Institute.



In 2020, the world lost 258,000 sq km (100,000 sq miles) of forest &#8211; an area larger than the United Kingdom, according to WRI&#8217;s Global Forest Watch. The conservation charity WWF estimates that 27 football fields of forest are lost every minute.



<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/climate-un-forests/over-100-global-leaders-pledge-to-end-deforestation-by-2030-idUSL4N2RS3VG">The pledge to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation</a> by the end of the decade is underpinned by $19 billion in public and private funds to be invested in protecting and restoring forests.



The signatories again include Brazil, which has carried out soaring deforestation under right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Together they account for 85% of the world&#8217;s forests.



Under the agreement, 12 countries pledged to provide $12 billion of public funding between 2021 and 2025 for developing countries to restore degraded land and tackle wildfires.



At least $7.2 billion will come from private sector investors representing $8.7 trillion in assets under management, who also pledged to stop investing in activities linked to deforestation such as cattle, palm oil and soybean farming and pulp production.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">&#8216;DOUBLE STANDARDS&#8217;</h2>



The funding may help reduce mistrust among developing countries caused by the failure of wealthy nations to deliver on a 2009 promise to stump up $100 billion per year by 2020 to help them tackle climate change.



This mistrust is one of the main obstacles to climate progress, making some developing countries reluctant to embrace steep emission cuts.



&#8220;We see double standards creeping into our thinking, whereby those who have already benefitted from carbon-driven economies would like to prevent emerging economies laying similar foundations for their political stability, social development and economic prosperity,&#8221; Suriname President Chan Santokhi said.



On Tuesday, Japan said it would offer up to $10 billion over five years in additional assistance to support decarbonisation in Asia.



U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said this could leverage another $8 billion from the World Bank and other sources, probably allowing the $100 billion threshold of climate financing to be reached by 2022, rather than 2023 as previously expected.



In another deal signed on Tuesday, Britain and India launched a plan to improve connections between the world&#8217;s electricity power grids to help accelerate the transition to greener energy.



But there was scant sign of shared resolve by the world&#8217;s two biggest carbon polluters, China and the United States, which together account for more than 40% of global emissions but are at odds on numerous issues.



Biden has singled out China and leading oil producer Russia for failing to step up their climate goals in Glasgow, while Beijing has rejected Washington&#8217;s efforts to separate climate issues from their wider disagreements.



The Communist Party-run Global Times said in an editorial on Monday that Washington&#8217;s attitude had made it &#8220;impossible for China to see any potential to have fair negotiation amid the tensions&#8221;.



(Reporting by Kate Abnett in Brussels, Valerie Volcovici in Washington; Jake Spring, Simon Jessop, William James and Ilze Filks in Glasgow; David Stanway, Josh Horwitz and Yew Lun Tian; Writing by Kevin Liffey and Gavin Jones; Editing by Janet Lawrence, Barbara Lewis and Grant McCool)

573c8592a390e84534d124faa4ab386b

Nations make new pledges to cut methane, save forests at climate summit

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/GNMR5DNKJVCK3CEABVKNDCUJLI-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-413159" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/GNMR5DNKJVCK3CEABVKNDCUJLI-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/GNMR5DNKJVCK3CEABVKNDCUJLI-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/GNMR5DNKJVCK3CEABVKNDCUJLI-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/GNMR5DNKJVCK3CEABVKNDCUJLI-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/GNMR5DNKJVCK3CEABVKNDCUJLI-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/GNMR5DNKJVCK3CEABVKNDCUJLI-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Britain&#8217;s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during the opening ceremony of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain November 1, 2021. Jeff J Mitchell/Pool via REUTERS</figcaption></figure>



GLASGOW, Nov 1 (Reuters) &#8211; <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/cop">A crucial U.N. conference</a> heard calls on its first day for the world&#8217;s major economies to keep their promises of financial help to address the climate crisis, while big polluters India and Brazil made new commitments to cut emissions.



World leaders, environmental experts and activists all pleaded for decisive action to halt the global warming which threatens the future of the planet at the start of the two-week COP26 summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Monday.



The task facing negotiators was made even more daunting by the failure of the Group of 20 major industrial nations to agree ambitious new commitments at the weekend.



The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/cop26-what-would-success-look-like-climate-summit-2021-10-31">G20 is responsible for around 80% of global greenhouse gases </a>and a similar proportion of carbon dioxide, the gas produced by burning fossil fuels that is the main cause of the rise in global temperatures which are triggering an increasing intensity of heatwaves, droughts, floods and storms.



&#8220;The animals are disappearing, the rivers are dying and our plants don&#8217;t flower like they did before. The Earth is speaking. She tells us that we have no more time,&#8221; Txai Surui, a 24-year-old indigenous youth leader from the Amazon rain forest, told the opening ceremony in Glasgow.



Delayed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, COP26 aims to keep alive a target of capping global warming at <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/cop/paris-glasgow-cutting-through-climate-jargon-2021-10-27.">1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.</a>



<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/cop26-what-would-success-look-like-climate-summit-2021-10-31">To do that, it needs to secure more ambitious pledges to reduce emissions</a>, lock in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/climate-finance-could-make-or-break-cop26-summit-heres-why-2021-11-01">billions in climate financing</a> for developing countries, and finish the rules for implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement, which was signed by nearly 200 countries.



The pledges made so far would allow the planet&#8217;s average surface temperature to rise 2.7C this century, which the United Nations says would supercharge the destruction that climate change is already causing.



More than 100 global leaders late on Monday pledged to halt and reverse deforestation and land degradation by the end of the decade, underpinned by $19 billion in public and private funds to invest in protecting and restoring forests.



U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reminded delegates that the six hottest years on record have occurred since 2015.



Other speakers, including activists from the poorer countries hardest hit by climate change, had a defiant message.



&#8220;Pacific youth have rallied behind the cry &#8216;We are not drowning, we are fighting&#8217;,&#8221; said Brianna Fruean from the Polynesian island state of Samoa, which is at risk from rising sea levels. &#8220;This is our warrior cry to the world.&#8221;



In 2009, the developed countries most responsible for global warming pledged to provide $100 billion per year by 2020 to help developing nations deal with its consequences.



The commitment has still not been met, generating mistrust and a reluctance among some developing nations to accelerate their emissions reductions.



Leaders of countries such as Kenya, Bangladesh, Barbados and Malawi called rich nations to task for failing to deliver.



&#8220;The money pledge to least developed nations by developed nations &#8230; is not a donation, but a cleaning fee,&#8221; Malawi&#8217;s President Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera said.



&#8220;Neither Africa in general, nor Malawi in particular, will take &#8216;no&#8217; for an answer. Not any more.&#8221;



President Xi Jinping of China, by far the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, said in a written statement that developed countries should not only do more but also support developing countries to do better.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-hitters-stay-home">BIG HITTERS STAY HOME</h2>



Xi&#8217;s absence, along with that of Russia&#8217;s Vladimir Putin, president of one of the world&#8217;s top three oil producers together with the United States and Saudi Arabia, may hinder progress.



Activist Greta Thunberg appealed to her millions of supporters to sign an open letter accusing leaders of betrayal.



&#8220;This is not a drill. It&#8217;s code red for the Earth,&#8221; it read.



&#8220;Millions will suffer as our planet is devastated &#8212; a terrifying future that will be created, or avoided, by the decisions you make. You have the power to decide.&#8221;



Meanwhile, India and Brazil, two of the largest polluters, both used the platform to provide new emission cutting pledges.



&#8220;We will act responsibly and search for real solutions for an urgent transition,&#8221; Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has presided over more than two years of deforestation, said.



Brazil said it would cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, compared with a previous pledge of 43% in that period.



However, the cuts are calculated against emissions levels in 2005, a baseline which was retroactively revised last year, making it easier for Brazil&#8217;s targets to be met.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi set 2070 as a target for India to reach net-zero carbon emissions, much later than those set by other polluters and twenty years beyond the U.N.&#8217;s global recommendation.



The G20 failed to commit to the 2050 target to halt net carbon emissions, undermining one of COP26&#8217;s main aims, at a weekend meeting in Rome.



Instead, they only recognised &#8220;the key relevance&#8221; of doing so &#8220;by or around mid-century&#8221;, and set no timetable for phasing out domestic coal power, a major cause of carbon emissions.



The commitment to phase out fossil fuel subsidies &#8220;over the medium term&#8221; echoed wording they used as long ago as 2009.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">&#8216;CALAMITOUS THREATS&#8217;</h2>



Discord among some of the world&#8217;s biggest emitters about how to cut back on coal, oil and gas will make progress difficult in Glasgow, as will the rich world&#8217;s failure to stick to promises.



Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley compared the vast sums pumped into the global economy by rich countries&#8217; central banks in recent years with those spent on climate help.



&#8220;Can there be peace and prosperity if one-third of the world lives in prosperity and two-thirds lives under seas and face calamitous threats to our wellbeing?&#8221; she said.



Developed nations confirmed last week they would be three years late in meeting the $100 billion climate finance pledge &#8211; which many poor countries and activists say is insufficient anyway.



U.S. President Joe Biden said the rich must do more, admitting that &#8220;right now we&#8217;re falling short,&#8221; while French President Emmanuel Macron also called on all developed countries to deliver their fair share of funding.



Biden announced in September that the U.S. would double its climate finance to $11.4 billion per year, but several climate thinktanks and activists say this still falls far short of what its contribution should be.



World leaders wrapped up the first day of COP26 at a reception hosted by Prince Charles and other members of the British royal family. Queen Elizabeth, who has been advised by her doctors to rest, sent a video message.



(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Katy Daigle and Mark John; Writing by Gavin Jones and Kevin Liffey; Editing by Barbara Lewis and Alexander Smith)

COP26 in Glasgow

Deliver on promises, developing world tells rich at climate talks

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="523" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/EM37Z2JWZZLVFJJSIP5BLOD464-820x523.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-412930" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/EM37Z2JWZZLVFJJSIP5BLOD464-820x523.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/EM37Z2JWZZLVFJJSIP5BLOD464-300x191.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/EM37Z2JWZZLVFJJSIP5BLOD464-141x90.jpg 141w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/EM37Z2JWZZLVFJJSIP5BLOD464-768x490.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/EM37Z2JWZZLVFJJSIP5BLOD464-1536x980.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/EM37Z2JWZZLVFJJSIP5BLOD464-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>FILE PHOTO: Steam rises at sunrise from the Lethabo Power Station, a coal-fired power station owned by state power utility ESKOM near Sasolburg, South Africa, March 2, 2016. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, Oct 21 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa is seeking cheap finance for more than 400 billion rand ($27.6 billion) of electricity infrastructure as part of its plans to move away from heavily polluting coal, a senior presidency official said on Thursday.



Through a funding facility backed by rich nations and development finance institutions, South Africa hopes to build more than 180 billion rand of cleaner power generation, 120 billion rand of transmission equipment, as well as substations, transformers and distribution technology.



More than 80% of the country&#8217;s electricity is currently generated by burning coal, making it the world&#8217;s 12th biggest carbon emitter. But last month the government adopted a more ambitious emissions reduction target ahead of the United Nations COP26 climate summit in November.



&#8220;South Africa&#8217;s message: We are prepared to make a substantial carbon reduction, but this must be financed by developed countries on concessional terms,&#8221; presidency official Rudi Dicks said in a presentation.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-read-more-south-africa-tells-western-envoys-it-needs-funds-to-shift-from-coal">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/south-africa-tells-western-envoys-it-needs-funds-to-shift-from-coal/">South Africa tells Western envoys it needs funds to shift from coal</a></h3>



State power company Eskom has said it is seeking up to $12 billion (around 180 billion rand) from global lenders for the transition away from coal.



But Dicks&#8217; presentation made clear that amount only accounted for the cost of building more than 7,000 megawatts (MW) of new generation from sources like solar, wind and natural gas to replace coal units that will be decommissioned.



It said the country was also seeking grants and low-cost loans to pay for a transmission grid expansion of at least 8,000 kilometres (4,970 miles), strengthen distribution corridors and set up a fund to accelerate economic diversification in a province with many coal plants.



Britain, the United States, Germany, France, as well as French and German development banks and the World Bank, could contribute funds, one slide showed.



Eskom plans to decommission between 8,000 and 12,000 MW of coal over the next decade, it said in August. 



($1 = 14.5152 rand) 



(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

FILE PHOTO: Steam rises at sunrise from the  Lethabo Power Station, a coal-fired power station owned by state power utility ESKOM near Sasolburg

South Africa seeks over $27 bln of finance for shift from coal

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="553" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/YNHK7DMZ3VKBLP2KNDTP3QYL2U-820x553.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-412888" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/YNHK7DMZ3VKBLP2KNDTP3QYL2U-820x553.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/YNHK7DMZ3VKBLP2KNDTP3QYL2U-300x202.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/YNHK7DMZ3VKBLP2KNDTP3QYL2U-133x90.jpg 133w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/YNHK7DMZ3VKBLP2KNDTP3QYL2U-768x518.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/YNHK7DMZ3VKBLP2KNDTP3QYL2U-1536x1037.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/YNHK7DMZ3VKBLP2KNDTP3QYL2U-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>FILE PHOTO: A vehicle drives past Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania&#8217;s Hie district December 10, 2009. At the foot of Africa&#8217;s snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro, images of the mountain adorn the sides of rusting zinc shacks and beer bottle labels, but the fate of the real version hangs in the balance. REUTERS/Katrina Manson</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, Oct 19 (Reuters) &#8211; Africa&#8217;s fabled eastern glaciers will vanish in two decades, 118 million poor people face drought, floods or extreme heat, and climate change could shrink the continent&#8217;s economy by 3% by mid-century, the U.N. climate agency warned on Tuesday.



The latest report on the state of Africa&#8217;s climate by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and African Union agencies paints a dire picture of the continent&#8217;s ability to adapt to increasingly frequent weather disasters.



The report says last year was Africa&#8217;s third warmest on record, according to one set of data, 0.86 degrees Celsius above the average in the three decades leading to 2010. It has mostly warmed slower than high-latitude temperate zones, but the impact is still devastating.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/africa-calls-for-climate-finance-tracker-after-donors-fall-short/">Africa calls for climate finance tracker after donors fall short</a></h3>



&#8220;The rapid shrinking of the last remaining glaciers in eastern Africa, which are expected to melt entirely in the near future, signals the threat of&#8230; irreversible change to the Earth system,&#8221; WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a foreword to the report.



The report came as African countries demanded a new system to track funding from wealthy nations that are failing to meet a $100-billion annual target to help the developing world tackle climate change.



The demand by Africa&#8217;s top climate negotiator Tanguy Gahouma, ahead of the COP26 climate summit, highlights tensions between the world&#8217;s 20 largest economies that produce more than three quarters of greenhouse gas emissions, and developing countries that are bearing the brunt of global warming.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-extreme-heat">&#8216;EXTREME HEAT&#8217;</h2>



The report forecast that at current rates all three of Africa&#8217;s tropical ice fields &#8211; Tanzania&#8217;s Kilimanjaro, Kenya&#8217;s Mount Kenya, and Uganda&#8217;s Rwenzoris, which are often identified as the location of the legendary Mountains of the Moon &#8211; would be gone by the 2040s.



In addition, &#8220;By 2030, it is estimated that up to 118 million extremely poor people (living on less than $1.90 per day) will be exposed to drought, floods and extreme heat&#8230; if adequate response measures are not put in place,&#8221; African Union Agriculture Commissioner Josefa Sacko said.



Africa, which accounts for less than 4% of greenhouse gas emissions, has long been expected to be severely impacted by climate change. Its croplands are already drought-prone, many of its major cities hug the coast, and widespread poverty makes it harder for people to adapt.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/african-governments-want-climate-finance-to-hit-1-3-trillion-by-2030/">African governments want climate finance to hit $1.3 trillion by 2030</a></h3>



Apart from worsening drought on a continent heavily reliant on agriculture, there was extensive flooding in East and West Africa in 2020, the report noted, while a locust infestation of historic proportions, which began a year earlier, continued to wreak havoc.



The report estimated that sub-Saharan Africa would need to spend $30-$50 billion, or 2-3% of GDP, each year on adaptation to avert even worse consequences.



An estimated 1.2 million people were displaced by storms and floods in 2020, nearly two and half times as many people as fled their homes because of conflict in the same year.



(Additional reporting by Alessandra Prentice in Libreville; Editing by Giles Elgood)

FILE PHOTO: A vehicle drives past Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania’s Hie district

As Africa’s glaciers melt, millions face drought and floods, UN says

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="558" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DWN76R3ZSBLDTJBRF6VLJRWNPY-820x558.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-412875" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DWN76R3ZSBLDTJBRF6VLJRWNPY-820x558.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DWN76R3ZSBLDTJBRF6VLJRWNPY-300x204.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DWN76R3ZSBLDTJBRF6VLJRWNPY-132x90.jpg 132w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DWN76R3ZSBLDTJBRF6VLJRWNPY-768x522.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DWN76R3ZSBLDTJBRF6VLJRWNPY-1536x1044.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DWN76R3ZSBLDTJBRF6VLJRWNPY-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>A protester from the Climate Coalition demonstrates, with 100 hundred days to go before the start of the COP26 climate summit, in Parliament Square, London, Britain, July 23, 2021. REUTERS/PeterA protester from the Climate Coalition demonstrates, with 100 hundred days to go before the start of the COP26 climate summit, in Parliament Square, London, Britain, July 23, 2021. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls</figcaption></figure>



LIBREVILLE, Oct 19 (Reuters) &#8211; African countries want a new system to track funding from wealthy nations that are failing to meet a $100-billion annual target to help the developing world tackle climate change, Africa&#8217;s lead climate negotiator said.



The demand highlights tensions ahead of the COP26 climate summit between the world&#8217;s 20 largest economies, which are behind 80% of greenhouse gas emissions, and developing countries that are bearing the brunt of the effects of global warming.



&#8220;If we prove that someone is responsible for something, it is his responsibility to pay for that,&#8221; said Tanguy Gahouma, chair of the African Group of Negotiators at COP26, the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, which starts on Oct. 31.



In 2009, developed countries agreed to raise $100 billion per year by 2020 to help the developing world deal with the fallout from a warming planet.



The latest available estimates from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show this funding hit $79.6 billion in 2019, just 2% more than in 2018.



The OECD data shows Asian countries on average received 43% of the climate finance in 2016-19, while Africa received 26%. Gahouma said a more detailed shared system was needed that would keep tabs on each country&#8217;s contribution and where it went on the ground.



&#8220;They say they achieved maybe 70% of the target, but we cannot see that,&#8221; Gahouma said.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-read-more-u-n-panel-says-it-can-t-rule-on-climate-case-brought-by-greta-thunberg">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/u-n-panel-says-it-cant-rule-on-climate-case-brought-by-greta-thunberg/">U.N. panel says it can’t rule on climate case brought by Greta Thunberg</a></h3>



&#8220;We need to have a clear roadmap how they will put on the table the $100 billion per year, how we can track (it),&#8221; he said in an interview on Thursday. &#8220;We don&#8217;t have time to lose and Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions of the world.&#8221;



Temperatures in Africa are rising at a faster rate than the global average, according to the latest U.N. climate report. It forecasts further warming will lead to more extreme heatwaves, severe coastal flooding and intense rainfall on the continent.



Even as wealthy nations miss the $100 billion target, African countries plan to push for this funding to be scaled up more than tenfold by 2030.



&#8220;The $100 billion was a political commitment. It was not based on the real needs of developing countries to tackle climate change,&#8221; Gahouma said.



World leaders and their representatives have just a few days at the summit in Glasgow to try to broker deals to cut emissions faster and finance measures to adapt to climate pressures.



African countries face an extra challenge at the talks because administrative hurdles to entering Britain and to travelling during the coronavirus pandemic mean smaller than usual delegations can attend, Gahouma said.



&#8220;Limited delegations, with a very huge amount of work and limited time. This will be very challenging,&#8221; Gahouma said.



(Reporting by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Aaron Ross and Janet Lawrence)

Climate Coalition protesters demonstrate 100 days ahead of the COP26 climate summit, in London

Africa calls for climate finance tracker after donors fall short

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/106905973-1625223614118-gettyimages-1232575215-OIL_DEMAND.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-409992" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/106905973-1625223614118-gettyimages-1232575215-OIL_DEMAND.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/106905973-1625223614118-gettyimages-1232575215-OIL_DEMAND-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/106905973-1625223614118-gettyimages-1232575215-OIL_DEMAND-140x80.jpeg 140w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>Oil well pump jacks operated by Chevron Corp. in San Ardo, California, U.S., on Tuesday, April 27, 2021.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) &#8211; A global energy crunch is expected to boost oil demand by half a million barrels per day (bpd) and could stoke inflation and slow the world&#8217;s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday.



Oil and natural gas prices have soared to multi-year highs recently, sending power prices surging to record levels as widespread energy shortages engulf Asia and Europe.



&#8220;Record coal and gas prices as well as rolling blackouts are prompting the power sector and energy-intensive industries to turn to oil to keep the lights on and operations humming,&#8221; the IEA said in its monthly oil report.



&#8220;Higher energy prices are also adding to inflationary pressures that, along with power outages, could lead to lower industrial activity and a slowdown in the economic recovery.&#8221;



As a result, global oil demand next year is now projected to recover to pre-pandemic levels, the Paris-based agency added. It made upward revisions to its demand forecasts for this year and 2022, increasing them by 170,000 bpd and 210,000 bpd respectively.



An upsurge in demand in the past quarter led to the biggest draw on oil products stocks in eight years, it said, while storage levels in OECD countries were at their lowest since early 2015.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-read-more-iea-says-clean-energy-progress-remains-far-too-slow">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/iea-says-clean-energy-progress-remains-far-too-slow/">IEA says clean energy progress remains ‘far too slow’</a></h3>



Meanwhile, the IEA estimated that producer group OPEC+ is set to pump 700,000 bpd below the estimated demand for its crude in the fourth quarter of this year, meaning demand will outpace supply at least until the end of 2021.



Spare production capacity from the group is set to shrink rapidly, it warned, from 9 million bpd in the first quarter of this year to only 4 million bpd in the second quarter of 2022.



That output capacity is concentrated in a small handful of Middle East states, it said, and its decline underscores the need to increase investment to meet future demand.



&#8220;A surge in spending on clean energy transitions provides the way forward, but this needs to happen quickly or global energy markets will face a bumpy road ahead,&#8221; the report said



Releasing its flaghsip annual energy outlook ahead of a key climate conference in Britain next month, the IEA on Wednesday said that the economic recovery from the pandemic was &#8220;unsustainable&#8221; and revolved too much on fossil fuels.



Investment in renewable energy needs to triple by the end of the decade if the world hopes to effectively fight climate change, it said on Wednesday.



(Reporting by Noah Browning Editing by David Goodman)

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Energy crisis could threaten global economic recovery, says IEA

<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="740" height="416" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106958868-1634045422886-gettyimages-516043447-000048672358_XXXLarge.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-412743" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106958868-1634045422886-gettyimages-516043447-000048672358_XXXLarge.jpeg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106958868-1634045422886-gettyimages-516043447-000048672358_XXXLarge-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/106958868-1634045422886-gettyimages-516043447-000048672358_XXXLarge-160x90.jpeg 160w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" /><figcaption>Lignite mining taking place in Germany with wind turbines in the background. delectus | iStock | Getty Image</figcaption></figure>



The International Energy Agency issued a sobering warning Wednesday, claiming that clean energy progress remained “far too slow to put global emissions into sustained decline towards net zero.”



The Paris-based organization made its remarks in an announcement accompanying the release of its World Energy Outlook 2021. The wide-ranging report’s publication comes as the planet gears up for the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow, Scotland, which will take place between Oct. 31 and Nov. 12.



The IEA’s report said that while electric vehicle sales achieved new records in 2020 and renewable sources such as wind and solar photovoltaic continued their rapid growth, “every data point showing the speed of change in energy can be countered by another showing the stubbornness of the status quo.” Photovoltaic refers to a way of directly converting light from the sun into electricity.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/iea-cuts-2021-oil-demand-outlook-as-new-covid-19-lockdowns-weigh-on-fuel-sales/">IEA cuts 2021 oil demand outlook as new Covid-19 lockdowns weigh on fuel sales</a></h3>



In a sign of how much work needs to be done, the WEO described how a “rapid but uneven economic recovery from last year’s Covid‐induced recession” had put significant strains on the energy system. This had sparked “sharp price rises in natural gas, coal and electricity markets.”



“For all the advances being made by renewables and electric mobility, 2021 is seeing a large rebound in coal and oil use,” the report continued. “Largely for this reason, it is also seeing the second‐largest annual increase in CO2 emissions in history.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-challenges-ahead">Challenges ahead</h3>



The report goes through a number of scenarios when it comes to looking at the years ahead. These include its Stated Policies Scenario, where “almost all of the net growth in energy demand to 2050 is met by low emissions sources.”



While the above sounds promising, the IEA cautions that this would leave yearly emissions at roughly today’s levels. “As a result, global average temperatures are still rising when they hit 2.6 °C above pre‐industrial levels in 2100.”



Another outlook, the Announced Pledges Scenario, looks at what would happen if the net zero commitments made by governments to date were fully implemented on time.



Under this scenario, challenges remain, according to the WEO: “The global average temperature rise in 2100 is held to around 2.1 °C above pre‐industrial levels, although this scenario does not hit net zero emissions, so the temperature trend has still not stabilised.”



The shadow of the Paris Agreement, which was reached at the COP21 summit in December 2015, looms large over both COP26 and the IEA’s report.



Described by the United Nations as a legally binding international treaty on climate change, the accord aims to “limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.”



The challenge is huge, and the United Nations has noted that 1.5 degrees Celsius is considered to be “the upper limit” when it comes to avoiding the worst consequences from climate change.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"> Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/ieas-urgent-fossil-fuel-warning-earns-mixed-reception-from-producers/">IEA’s urgent fossil fuel warning earns mixed reception from producers</a></h3>



Referencing the current trajectory of CO2 emissions, the U.N. states that “temperature could increase by as much as 4.4°C by the end of the century.”



Commenting on the IEA’s newly published report, Fatih Birol, its executive director, said: “The world’s hugely encouraging clean energy momentum is running up against the stubborn incumbency of fossil fuels in our energy systems.”



“Governments need to resolve this at COP26 by giving a clear and unmistakeable signal that they are committed to rapidly scaling up the clean and resilient technologies of the future,” Birol said.



“The social and economic benefits of accelerating clean energy transitions are huge, and the costs of inaction are immense.”



Speaking to CNBC Wednesday morning, Birol expanded on his point.



World leaders coming to Glasgow, he said, “should unite and give an important, unmistakable signal to… investors around the world.“ Among other things, Birol continued, this would include telling investors they may risk losing money if they continued to invest in “dirty energy.”

106958868-1634045422886-gettyimages-516043447-000048672358_XXXLarge

IEA says clean energy progress remains ‘far too slow’

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="548" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/3KSUKJM7KVIBHMITAZL2TYGYTE-820x548.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-412700" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/3KSUKJM7KVIBHMITAZL2TYGYTE-820x548.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/3KSUKJM7KVIBHMITAZL2TYGYTE-300x201.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/3KSUKJM7KVIBHMITAZL2TYGYTE-135x90.jpg 135w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/3KSUKJM7KVIBHMITAZL2TYGYTE-768x514.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/3KSUKJM7KVIBHMITAZL2TYGYTE.jpg 960w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Climate activist Greta Thunberg speaks as she joins students holding a Fridays for Future climate strike while environment ministers meet ahead of Glasgow&#8217;s COP26 meeting, in Milan, Italy, October 1, 2021.</figcaption></figure>



GENEVA, Oct 11 (Reuters) &#8211; A U.N. panel said on Monday it could not immediately rule on a complaint by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg and others that state inaction on climate change violates children&#8217;s rights, adding they should have sought redress in national courts first.



<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-un-complaint-idUSKBN1W82AS">The complaint was filed with the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2019</a> and the 18-member panel has been conducting hearings and deliberating since.



The 15 activists, aged between eight and 17 at the time, had argued that France, Turkey, Brazil, Germany and Argentina had known about the risk of climate change for decades but failed to curb their carbon emissions.



The case is one of a growing number of climate litigation cases that invokes human rights and is seen as setting an important precedent.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-read-more-why-renewable-energy-is-essential-for-food-systems-transformation-in-africa"> Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/why-renewable-energy-is-essential-for-food-systems-transformation-in-africa/">Why renewable energy is essential for food systems transformation in Africa</a></h3>



The committee, made up of 18 independent human rights experts, concluded that a &#8220;sufficient causal link&#8221; had been established between the significant harm allegedly suffered by the children and the acts or omissions of the five states.



However, it accepted the arguments of the five countries that the children should have tried to bring cases to their national courts first.



&#8220;You were successful on some aspects but not on others,&#8221; the committee told the youth activists in a letter, in which it saluted their &#8220;courage and determination&#8221;.



&#8220;We hope that you will be empowered by the positive aspects of this decision, and that you will continue to act in your own countries and regions and internationally to fight for justice on climate change,&#8221; it said.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/madagascar-prays-for-rain-as-u-n-warns-of-climate-change-famine/">Madagascar prays for rain as U.N. warns of ‘climate change famine’</a></h3>



One important detail of the ruling was that the committee found that it can deal with cases even if the harmful effects of one country&#8217;s emissions are felt by children in another country.



The activists come from 12 countries: Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Palau, Marshall Islands, Nigeria, South Africa, Sweden, Tunisia and the United States.



The committee monitors the adherence of state parties to a 1989 convention which declared the unassailable civil, economic, political and cultural rights of children. The convention has 196 state parties.



A smaller number of countries, 48, have agreed to a protocol allowing children to seek redress under the convention and these include the five countries that are respondents in the case. 



(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Nick Macfie)

3KSUKJM7KVIBHMITAZL2TYGYTE

U.N. panel says it can’t rule on climate case brought by Greta Thunberg

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="523" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/74NQI7ZUBFL3NCYHGSBZREE6KU-820x523.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-412600" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/74NQI7ZUBFL3NCYHGSBZREE6KU-820x523.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/74NQI7ZUBFL3NCYHGSBZREE6KU-300x191.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/74NQI7ZUBFL3NCYHGSBZREE6KU-141x90.jpg 141w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/74NQI7ZUBFL3NCYHGSBZREE6KU-768x490.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/74NQI7ZUBFL3NCYHGSBZREE6KU-1536x980.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/74NQI7ZUBFL3NCYHGSBZREE6KU-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>FILE PHOTO: Steam rises at sunrise from the Lethabo Power Station, a coal-fired power station owned by state power utility ESKOM near Sasolburg, South Africa, March 2, 2016. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko</figcaption></figure>



JOHANNESBURG, Oct 6 (Reuters) &#8211; African nations believe financing to help developing countries deal with climate change should be scaled up more than tenfold to $1.3 trillion per year by 2030, a key African climate negotiator told Reuters.



Such an amount would mark a dramatic increase from the current goal of $100 billion annually that developed nations have struggled to meet.



Zaheer Fakir, a lead coordinator for finance for the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change, said the new goal had been formally adopted by African environment ministers in September and would be suggested by African nations at COP26, the U.N. climate conference kicking off on Oct. 31 in Glasgow, Scotland.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/uk-climate-envoy-to-visit-south-africa-to-discuss-helping-shift-from-coal/">UK climate envoy to visit South Africa to discuss helping shift from coal</a></h3>



Developed nations with historical responsibility for climate-warming emissions have currently committed to channel $100 billion per year in climate finance to vulnerable countries by 2020, and up until 2025. The issue is set to be high on the agenda at COP26 after they likely fell short of that target.



Discussions around what climate finance should look like post-2025 should start now, Fakir said, adding that the $100 billion commitment was first set in 2009 and not based on the needs of developing countries.



&#8220;The point we are trying to make is that we need a climate finance figure that is ambitious, that is based on science and based on needs,&#8221; he said, adding it should also be balanced between funding for both mitigating climate change and adapting to it.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-pressure-to-pay-more">PRESSURE TO PAY MORE</h2>



Developing nations are an essential part of global ambitions to achieve &#8220;net zero&#8221; emissions, including among their number nine out of the 20 biggest carbon dioxide emitters. Such countries also include those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, such as floods and heatwaves.



Without the promised support, many poorer nations say they cannot take more aggressive action to cut planet-heating emissions or adapt to a warmer world, and rich nations are under pressure to step up their contributions.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/more-needed-g7-nations-agree-to-boost-climate-finance/">More needed: G7 nations agree to boost climate finance</a></h3>



The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development estimated in September that in 2019, the latest year for which figures were available, donor governments channelled just short of $80 billion in climate finance to vulnerable countries, including private investments they had mobilised.



They had likely missed the 2020 deadline to reach $100 billion, OECD secretary-general Mathias Cormann said.



Fakir said Africa&#8217;s proposed target envisioned at least $100 billion per year in public contributions from developed countries, including those channelled via development banks or dedicated climate funds, with the rest made up of private investments mobilised by the donor countries. 



(Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Alex Richardson)

African governments want climate finance to hit $1.3 trillion by 2030

Climate change is widespread, rapid, and intensifying &#8211; claims the latest assessment report by the IPCC. The AR6&#8217;s first working group report explains the science behind the change and will be followed by impact and mitigation solutions in the year 2022.



The report&#8217;s findings make a glaring reaffirmation of the fact that it is indeed human activities that have caused irreparable damage to the planet&#8217;s regulatory functions resulting in severe heatwaves, heavy rainfall, and droughts. Acute weather events will continually become more common and extreme as the decade unfolds. The UN&#8217;s chief has labeled it &#8220;code red for humanity&#8221;.



CNBC AFRICA spoke to Dr. Leena, the deputy director-general of IIASA, on the need for action and the imposition of corrective policies in developed nations to cushion the impact on developing nations as they are the first and most adversely affected by climate change, as well as least responsible for the travesty.



The report affirms the impact of human influence on climate change, accelerated by black fossil fuel emission, greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, over-fishing, and other such activities of the modern era. The report also states that in order to reverse the impact on the Earth, global carbon emissions must drop to a net-zero by 2050.



Dr. Leena points out that a number of nations have committed to becoming carbon zero by the same timeline but also asserts that it will not be achieved soon enough.



&#8220;Target is not global net-zero. The approach is country by country which might not add up to a global net-zero emission target. This target does not translate to a uniform target for every nation in the world&#8221;.



Upon being questioned on the moral and historical responsibility of industrial nations in acting firsthand as well as helping developing nations achieve sustainability targets.



Dr. Leena responded, &#8221; It is unfair to put the pressure on developing nations who have little to do with the current state of climate health. But it is important to understand what would be more unfair&#8221;.



As global climate change will cause misery across the planet, it is important to work together while ensuring sustainable economic growth in developing nations. The question becomes: How can developed nations share the burden with lower-income nations? It is apparent, that the transition to 100% clean energy for developing nations will come at a higher cost and over a longer time frame as compared to developed nations.



In response to sharing the burden, Dr. Leena pointed out &#8221; Who bears the cost for climate change has been discussed in the last 25 COP meetings and where does the historical responsibility lie. This is why global net-zero emission cannot be uniformly applied across all nations&#8221;



Revised and stricter policy for mitigation cannot be enforced on nations! This poses a dilemma to every nation as they must find it within themselves to support the cause and impose regulations on themselves.



&#8220;As far as the issue of investment and standard assets in developing nations is concerned, the transition to renewable energy is becoming smoother with lower costs and more opportunity and access.&#8221;



However, the renewable industry is not yet capable of matching the scale of the required transition globally. This transition will be even more difficult to apply in rural and remote regions as compared to the developed world. Thereby raising the question of the responsibility of high-income nations towards climate change mitigation.



&#8220;A mechanism will have to be designed at a global level to help nations that are unfairly penalized for Climate Change impact,&#8221; says Dr. Leena Srivastava.



She asserts that effective penal methods combined with incentives, heavier taxes, and a competitive landscape for renewables are pushing renewables well past fossil fuels. Governments must enforce stricter regimes, greater incentives, and heavier taxes on pollution, as well as a more stringent application of the popular &#8220;Polluter to pay principle&#8221;. This and more are the only way we could get closer to global targets in emission reduction and subsequent mitigation of climate change.

Augrabies Falls NP_Landscape_Viewpoint

Climate change impact mitigation for Africa’s development

JOHANNESBURG, July 14 (Reuters) &#8211; Happy Letsitsa hasn&#8217;t paid off the money he borrowed to survive a 2019 drought that ravaged his maize and sunflower farm in the South African province of Free State.



He has no drought insurance. If rains fail again, they could spell the end of his business, which supports his wife, child, father and extended family.



&#8220;It&#8217;s like going to a casino and playing a high bet,&#8221; he said of running his smallholder farm without cover. &#8220;It&#8217;s not easy, especially if you&#8217;ve got one stream of income: farming.&#8221;



This precarious livelihood is common among the hundreds of thousands of small farmers in South Africa. Most can&#8217;t access any drought cover in a country that feeds the wider region with staples like maize but is increasingly beset by extreme weather on the front lines of climate change.



It&#8217;s not just the small guys. The problem is acute among larger farmers too. Most can&#8217;t afford the main commercial cover for drought, known as multi-peril crop insurance (MPCI), or are not offered it by insurers.



Jan Pretorius in North West province is one of the lucky few that can pay for MPCI, but even he&#8217;s struggling. His premiums make up around 11% of the roughly 7,000 rand ($492) he spends to plant each of his roughly 600 hectares of maize.



&#8220;Where we&#8217;re farming, nobody is getting multi-peril crop insurance anymore,&#8221; he said.



Farmers and insurers alike say the insurance system is broken, at a time when droughts are becoming longer and harsher. Some parts of the country are in their ninth dry year, while a drought across much of the southern African region that began in 2018 left tens of millions of people hungry.



Now a plan has been formulated by insurers and the government for a 3.2 billion rand ($223 million), 10-year state subsidy scheme aimed at fixing the market&#8217;s problems, according to a South African Insurance Association (SAIA) document seen by Reuters that outlines the previously unreported proposals.



The scheme, which was confirmed by the government, would see commercial grain and oilseed farmers have 25% of their MPCI premiums subsidised. Smallholders in grain, oilseed or livestock would be offered a type of cover called weather index insurance, and have the state pay 75% of their premiums.



Weather index cover is used by millions of farmers in several nations, such as Kenya and India, but has never been tried in South Africa. It pays out automatically when a metric, such as rainfall, is above or below a certain level, removing the need for costly visits to sites to assess claims.



Nkhangweleni Ramashia, the agriculture ministry&#8217;s chief director for development finance, told Reuters the subsidy scheme was critical to protect farmers from climate change.



&#8220;I am hopeful,&#8221; he added. &#8220;If you look at the &#8230; changing weather patterns, I don&#8217;t see how agriculture can survive without a product like this.&#8221;



This was echoed by Richard Boys, a senior manager at Hannover Reinsurance South Africa.



&#8220;Without such initiatives, the inevitability of MPCI becoming increasingly unaffordable for farmers and unviable for insurance companies is a real concern,&#8221; he said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-moisture-measured-from-orbit">MOISTURE MEASURED FROM ORBIT</h2>



South Africa&#8217;s agricultural industry employs over 800,000 people. Yet high costs, combined with low availability, mean only 20% of the country&#8217;s commercial grain farmers have drought insurance, according to the SAIA document.



There are more than 7,000 commercial grain farmers, according to industry association Grain SA. Estimates of smallholders vary, and the vast majority also don&#8217;t have drought cover.



Ramashia, who said his ministry was attempting to eke out the money from its budget for the subsidies scheme, said the priority was to help the smaller farmers.



An industry pilot project that started this month, led by the country&#8217;s largest non-life insurer Santam, aims to cover around 50 smallholders with a product linked to soil moisture, measured via satellite, according to Santam&#8217;s head of agriculture Gerhard Diedericks said.



Premiums would be added onto loans farmers already obtain via agricultural cooperatives or other organisations that provide supplies like seeds



A similar industry pilot led by the state-owned Land Bank is still awaiting approval from the Treasury, the company told Reuters.



Paswel Marenya, a senior economist with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, said weather index insurance was key to increasing smallholders&#8217; resilience, and that payouts would be quicker and cheaper for the government.



However it has problems, he said: farmers can be left worse off if losses exceed the payouts and in some countries take-up has lagged expectations, with even subsidised premiums too high for many poor farmers.



Subsidy schemes should also come in conjunction with other initiatives, like education or new technologies, he added.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-insurers-can-t-hedge-risk">INSURERS CAN&#8217;T HEDGE RISK</h2>



The kind of MPCI subsidies being offered to commercial farmers under the plan have shielded farmers from rising premiums elsewhere such as China and the United States, Swapnil Soni, senior underwriter at reinsurer Scor, told Reuters.



Currently, high costs mean farmers in wetter regions opt to chance it rather than pay, leaving insurers unable to hedge risk in their books.



&#8220;It works against the whole concept of insurance,&#8221; said Soni, adding that reinsurers&#8217; South African crop insurance books, including Scor&#8217;s, had made frequent annual losses. As a result, it had cut back the amount of business it writes in its crop insurance book by roughly 70% as of 2020, he said.



Many insurers and reinsurers have stopped offering MPCI entirely, according to SAIA&#8217;s document. The number of hectares insured declined from a peak of 859,000 in 2009/10 to 201,000 in 2017/18, it said. Premium volumes dropped by around two-thirds to 113 million rand between 2012/13 and 2017/18.



There&#8217;s little respite, with the weather only likely to get more extreme.



A 2019 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change described the southern African region as a projected climate change hotspot.



It cited studies showing temperatures have been rising over its subtropical regions at twice the global rate on average over the last five decades and warning of longer and more frequent heatwaves or that the region is likely to become drier even if global temperature increases are limited to 2 degrees Celsius.



Farmer Pretorius in North West province said that, even with drought insurance, he had no control over the weather that could make or break his business. So every day he looks upwards and pleads for the skies to open.



&#8220;I am a Christian. I pray for rain.&#8221;



($1 = 14.2284 rand) (Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Pravin Char)



(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html

Belarus tractors for Zimbabwe

South African farmers dream of drought cover on climate front line

LONDON/MADRID, July 12 (Reuters) &#8211; Just 25 big cities – almost all of them in China – accounted for more than half of the climate-warming gases pumped out by a sample of 167 urban hubs around the world, an analysis of emissions trends showed on Monday.



In per capita terms, however, emissions from cities in the richest parts of the world are still generally higher than those from urban centres in developing countries, researchers found in the study published in the Frontiers journal.



The study compared greenhouse gas emissions reported by 167 cities in 53 countries, and found that 23 Chinese cities &#8211; among them Shanghai, Beijing and Handan &#8211; along with Moscow and Tokyo accounted for 52% of the total.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="How The U.S. Fell Behind China In The Fight Against Climate Change" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4zt-SMlaaM8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div><figcaption>How The U.S. Fell Behind China In The Fight Against Climate Change</figcaption></figure>



It included more cities from China, India, the United states and the European Union because of their larger contribution to global emissions and significance to the climate debate.



The findings highlighted the significant role cities play in reducing emissions, said study co-author Shaoqing Chen, an environmental scientist at Sun Yat-sen University in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.



&#8220;It is simple, logical,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If you don&#8217;t act, eventually you will suffer from (climate change),&#8221; he said.



Average global temperatures have already risen by more than 1 degree Celsius compared to the pre-industrial baseline and are still on track to exceed the 1.5-2 degree limit set by the Paris Agreement.



Chen and other scientists cautioned, however, that some of the data available for use in their study was patchy, with some cities reporting numbers from as far back as 2005.



A lack of consistency in how cities report emissions also makes comparisons tricky, they added.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-last-big-push">&#8216;LAST BIG PUSH&#8217;</h2>



Research published in 2018 in the Environmental Research Letters journal analysed a much larger sample of 13,000 cities, big and small, finding 100 cities containing 11% of the world&#8217;s population drove 18% of its carbon footprint.



Still, the new analysis &#8220;contributes to the growing literature and our understanding of urban emissions&#8221;, said Yale University Geography and Urban Science professor Karen Seto, who co-authored the 2018 paper.



&#8220;It&#8217;s really difficult to compare apples to apples on city greenhouse gas emissions but you have to try, and the paper makes a pretty good effort,&#8221; added Dan Hoornweg, a professor at Ontario Tech University and former adviser to the World Bank on sustainable cities and climate change.



Chen said the new analysis was the first to look at megacity emissions reduction targets and progress in cutting back.



Sixty-eight of the cities – mostly in developed nations – had set absolute emissions reduction targets.



But only 30 of the 42 cities where progress was tracked in the study had shown a reduction. Most of them were in the United States and Europe.



The analysis confirms scientists&#8217; expectations that whereas in China, cities with high per capita emissions are generally major manufacturing hubs, those in developed nations with the highest per capita rates tend to have strong levels of consumption.



While more developed economies in Europe and elsewhere can now grow without increasing emissions, the world is moving at different speeds, Hoornweg said.



&#8220;They generated a tonne of emissions on the way to get there and China is in that stage now. We know India is getting there at some point and the last big push in all of this will be Africa,&#8221; he said. 



(Additional reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor in Singapore Editing by Katy Daigle and Helen Popper)



(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html

Handful of cities driving urban greenhouse gas emissions – study

G7 leaders agreed on Sunday to raise their contributions to meet an overdue spending pledge of $100 billion a year by rich countries to help poorer countries cut carbon emissions and cope with global warming, but only two nations offered firm promises of more cash.



Alongside plans billed as helping speed infrastructure funding in developing countries and a shift to renewable and sustainable technology, the world&#8217;s seven largest advanced economies again pledged to meet the climate finance target.



But climate groups said the promise made in the summit&#8217;s final communique lacked detail and the developed nations should be more ambitious in their financial commitments.



In the communique, the seven nations &#8211; the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan &#8211; reaffirmed their commitment to &#8220;jointly mobilise $100 billion per year from public and private sources, through to 2025&#8221;.



&#8220;Towards this end, we commit to each increase and improve our overall international public climate finance contributions for this period and call on other developed countries to join and enhance their contributions to this effort.&#8221;



After the summit concluded, Canada said it would double its climate finance pledge to C$5.3 billion ($4.4 billion) over the next five years and Germany would increase its by 2 billion to 6 billion euros ($7.26 billion) a year by 2025 at the latest.



There was a clear push by leaders at the summit in southwest England to try to counter China&#8217;s increasing influence in the world, particularly among developing nations. The leaders signalled their desire to build a rival to Beijing&#8217;s multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative but the details were few and far between.



Johnson, host of the gathering in Carbis Bay, told a news conference that developed nations had to move further, faster.



&#8220;G7 countries account for 20% of global carbon emissions, and we were clear this weekend that action has to start with us,&#8221; he said as the summit concluded.



&#8220;And while it&#8217;s fantastic that every one of the G7 countries has pledged to wipe out our contributions to climate change, we need to make sure we&#8217;re achieving that as fast as we can and helping developing countries at the same time.&#8221;



PLEDGE OVERDUE



Some green groups were unimpressed with the climate pledges.



Catherine Pettengell, director at Climate Action Network, an umbrella group for advocacy organisations, said the G7 had failed to rise to the challenge of agreeing on concrete commitments on climate finance.



&#8220;We had hoped that the leaders of the world&#8217;s richest nations would come away from this week having put their money their mouth is,&#8221; she said.



Developed countries agreed at the United Nations in 2009 to together contribute $100 billion each year by 2020 in climate finance to poorer countries, many of whom are grappling with rising seas, storms and droughts made worse by climate change.



That target was not met, derailed in part by the coronavirus pandemic that also forced Britain to postpone the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) until later this year.



The G7 also said 2021 should be a &#8220;turning point for our planet&#8221; and to accelerate efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and keep the 1.5 Celsius global warming threshold within reach.



European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the G7 leaders had agreed to phase out coal.



The communique seemed less clear, saying: &#8220;We have committed to rapidly scale-up technologies and policies that further accelerate the transition away from unabated coal capacity, consistent with our 2030 NDCs and net zero commitment.&#8221;



The also pledged to work together to tackle so-called carbon leakage &#8211; the risk that tough climate policies could cause companies to relocate to regions where they can continue to pollute cheaply.



But there were few details on how they would manage to cut emissions, with an absence of specific measures on everything from the phasing out of coal to moving to electric vehicles.



Pettengell said it was encouraging that leaders were recognising the importance of climate change but their words had to be backed up by specific action on cutting subsidies for fossil fuel development and ending investment in projects such as new oil and gas fields, as well as on climate finance.



British environmentalist David Attenborough appealed to politicians to take action.



&#8220;We know in detail what is happening to our planet, and we know many of the things we need to do during this decade,&#8221; he said in a recorded video address to the meeting.



&#8220;Tackling climate change is now as much a political and communications challenge as it is a scientific or technological one. We have the skills to address it in time, all we need is the global will to do so.&#8221;



($1 = 1.2153 Canadian dollars)



(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper Additional reporting by William James and Kate Abnett in Brussels and Andreas Rinke in Berlin Editing by William Maclean, Raissa Kasolowsky and Frances Kerry)

49059761697_e8d5e5e333_b

More needed: G7 nations agree to boost climate finance

&nbsp;A group of 79 company bosses and investors managing $41 trillion issued separate calls on Thursday for world leaders to accelerate action on climate change by enacting more ambitious policies in areas including carbon pricing.



In an open letter to all governments as leaders of the G7 group of industrialised nations meet in Britain, and ahead of a global climate summit in November, the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders called for &#8220;bold action&#8221; now to meet future emissions targets.



To force corporate action, governments needed to change the rules of the game, they said, including by developing a market-based carbon pricing mechanism.



Countries should also force all businesses to establish &#8220;credible&#8221; decarbonisation targets, plus disclose emissions across all parts of their business, said the CEOs who include Swiss Re&#8217;s Christian Mumenthaler, Boston Consulting Group&#8217;s Rich Lesser and Royal DSM&#8217;s Feike Sijbesma.



The bosses also backed an elimination of fossil fuel subsidies, cuts on tariffs for climate-friendly goods, a boost in research and development funding for green technologies.



A separate statement backed by 457 investors warned governments that those countries to take the lead would become &#8220;increasingly attractive&#8221; investment destinations, while laggards would find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.



Key to that was for countries to commit to tougher emissions reduction cuts by 2030 and implement the domestic policies necessary to become net zero by 2050, added the investors, who include the likes of New York State, Fidelity International and Legal &amp; General Investment Management.



&#8220;Strong policies, in line with limiting global warming to no more than 1.5-degrees Celsius, can accelerate and scale up private capital flows towards the net-zero transition,&#8221; said the 2021 Global Investor Statement to Governments on the Climate Crisis.



Founded in 2014 and hosted by the World Economic Forum, the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders aims to help drive the transition to a low-carbon economy.



Ahead of the COP26 climate summit on Glasgow, governments need to publish plans to halve emissions by 2030, commit to net-zero emissions by 2050 and put in place &#8220;robust&#8221; policy roadmaps and interim targets, the CEOs said.



Developed countries also needed to exceed their $100 billion commitment to help developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change, and ensure development finance bodies commit to science-based targets across their lending portfolios. 



(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Pravin Char)

world economic forum

CEOs and investors push world leaders for stronger climate action

LONDON/BOSTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) &#8211; In the past, shareholder votes on the environment were rare and easily brushed aside. Things could look different in the annual meeting season starting next month, when companies are set to face the most investor resolutions tied to climate change in years.



Those votes are likely to win more support than in previous years from large asset managers seeking clarity on how executives plan to adapt and prosper in a low-carbon world, according to Reuters interviews with more than a dozen activist investors and fund managers.



In the United States, shareholders have filed 79 climate-related resolutions so far, compared with 72 for all of last year and 67 in 2019, according to data compiled by the Sustainable Investments Institute and shared with Reuters. The institute estimated the count could reach 90 this year.



Topics to be put to a vote at annual general meetings (AGMs) include calls for emissions limits, pollution reports and &#8220;climate audits&#8221; that show the financial impact of climate change on their businesses.



A broad theme is to press corporations across sectors, from oil and transport to food and drink, to detail how they plan to reduce their carbon footprints in coming years, in line with government pledges to cut emissions to net zero by 2050.



&#8220;Net-zero targets for 2050 without a credible plan including short-term targets is greenwashing, and shareholders must hold them to account,&#8221; said billionaire British hedge fund manager Chris Hohn, who is pushing companies worldwide to hold a recurring shareholder vote on their climate plans.



Many companies say they already provide plenty of information about climate issues. Yet some activists say they see signs more executives are in a dealmaking mood this year.



Royal Dutch Shell said on Feb. 11 it would become the first oil and gas major to offer such a vote, following similar announcements from Spanish airports operator Aena, UK consumer goods company Unilever and U.S. rating agency Moody&#8217;s.



While most resolutions are non-binding, they often spur changes with even 30% or more support as executives look to satisfy as many investors as possible.



&#8220;The demands for increased disclosure and target-setting are much more pointed than they were in 2020,&#8221; said Daniele Vitale, the London-based head of governance for Georgeson, which advises corporations on shareholder views.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">COMPANIES WARM THE WORLD</h2>



While more and more companies are issuing net-zero targets for 2050, in line with goals set out in the 2015 Paris climate accord, few have published interim targets. A study https://www.southpole.com/news/survey-just-1-in-10-businesses-have-backed-up-net-zero-ambitions-with-science-based-targets from sustainability consultancy South Pole showed just 10% of 120 firms it polled, from varied sectors, had done so.



&#8220;There&#8217;s too much ambiguity and lack of clarity on the exact journey and route that companies are going to take, and how quickly we can actually expect movement,&#8221; said Mirza Baig, head of investment stewardship at Aviva Investors.



Data analysis from Swiss bank J Safra Sarasin, shared with Reuters, shows the scale of the collective challenge.



Sarasin studied the emissions of the roughly 1,500 firms in the MSCI World Index, a broad proxy for the world&#8217;s listed companies. It calculated that if companies globally did not curb their emissions rate, they would raise global temperatures by more than 3 degrees Celsius by 2050.



That is well short of the Paris accord goal of limiting warming to &#8220;well below&#8221; 2C, preferably 1.5C.



At an industry level, there are large differences, the study found: If every company emitted at the same level as the energy sector, for example, the temperature rise would be 5.8C, with the materials sector &#8211; including metals and mining &#8211; on course for 5.5C and consumer staples &#8211; including food and drink &#8211; 4.7C.



The calculations are mostly based on companies&#8217; reported emissions levels in 2019, the latest full year analysed, and cover Scope 1 and 2 emissions &#8211; those caused directly by a company, plus the production of the electricity it buys and uses.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">&#8216;TAILWIND ON CLIMATE&#8217;</h2>



Sectors with high carbon emissions are likely to face the most investor pressure for clarity.



In January, for example, ExxonMobil &#8211; long an energy industry laggard in setting climate goals &#8211; disclosed its Scope 3 emissions, those connected to use of its products.



This prompted the California Public Employees&#8217; Retirement System (Calpers) to withdraw a shareholder resolution seeking the information.



Calpers&#8217; Simiso Nzima, head of corporate governance for the $444 billion pension fund, said he saw 2021 as a promising year for climate concerns, with a higher likelihood of other companies also reaching agreements with activist investors.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">&#8220;You&#8217;re seeing a tailwind in terms of climate change.&#8221;</h2>



However, Exxon has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to skip votes on four other shareholder proposals, three related to climate matters, according to filings to the SEC. They cite reasons such as the company having already &#8220;substantially implemented&#8221; reforms.



An Exxon spokesman said it had ongoing discussions with its stakeholders, which led to the emissions disclosure. He declined to comment on the requests to skip votes, as did the SEC, which had not yet ruled on Exxon&#8217;s requests as of late Tuesday.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">&#8216;A CRUMB BUT A SIGN&#8217;</h2>



Given the influence of large shareholders, activists are hoping for more from BlackRock, the world&#8217;s biggest investor with $8.7 trillion under management, which has promised a tougher approach to climate issues.



Last week, BlackRock called for boards to come up with a climate plan, release emissions data and make robust short-term reduction targets, or risk seeing directors voted down at the AGM.



It backed a resolution at Procter &amp; Gamble&#8217;s AGM, unusually held in October, which asked the company to report on efforts to eliminate deforestation in its supply chains, helping it pass with 68% support.



&#8220;It&#8217;s a crumb but we hope it&#8217;s a sign of things to come&#8221; from BlackRock, said Kyle Kempf, spokesman for resolution sponsor Green Century Capital Management in Boston.



Asked for more details about its 2021 plans, such as if it might support Hohn&#8217;s resolutions, a BlackRock spokesman referred to prior guidance that it would &#8220;follow a case-by-case approach in assessing each proposal on its merits&#8221;.



Europe&#8217;s biggest asset manager, Amundi, said last week it, too, would back more resolutions.



Vanguard, the world&#8217;s second-biggest investor with $7.1 trillion under management, seemed less certain, though.



Lisa Harlow, Vanguard&#8217;s stewardship leader for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, called it &#8220;really difficult to say&#8221; whether its support for climate resolutions this year would be higher than its traditional rate of backing one in ten.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">&#8216;THERE WILL BE FIGHTS&#8217;</h2>



Britain&#8217;s Hohn, founder of $30 billion hedge fund TCI, aims to establish a regular mechanism to judge climate progress via annual shareholder votes.



In a &#8220;Say on Climate&#8221; resolution, investors ask a company to provide a detailed net zero plan, including short-term targets, and put it to an annual non-binding vote. If investors aren&#8217;t satisfied, they will then be in a stronger position to justify voting down directors, the plan holds.



Early signs suggest the drive is gaining momentum.



Hohn has already filed at least seven resolutions through TCI. The Children&#8217;s Investment Fund Foundation, which Hohn founded, is working with campaign groups and asset managers to file more than 100 resolutions over the next two AGM seasons in the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan and Australia.



&#8220;Of course, not all companies will support the Say on Climate,&#8221; Hohn told pension funds and insurance companies in November. &#8220;There will be fights, but we can win the votes.&#8221;



(Additional reporting by Sonali Paul in Sydney, Francesca Landini in Milan, Clara-Laeila Laudette in Madrid and Shadia Nasralla in London; Editing by Katy Daigle and Pravin Char)



(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html

Corals underwater

Show us the plan: Investors push companies to come clean on climate

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230914174-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-396438" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230914174-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230914174-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230914174-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1230914174.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Signage on fuel pumps at a BP gas station in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., on Friday, Jan. 29, 2021. BP Plc is scheduled to release earnings figures on February 2. Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



LONDON — Energy giant&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BP.-GB">BP</a>&nbsp;on Tuesday reported a weaker-than-expected full-year net loss, following a tumultuous 12-months in which the global oil and gas industry faced a torrent of bad news.



The U.K.-based oil and gas company posted a full-year underlying replacement cost loss, used as a proxy for net profit/loss, of $5.7 billion. That compared with a net profit of $10 billion for the 2019 fiscal year.



Analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected a full-year net loss of $4.8 billion.



BP also posted fourth-quarter net profit of $115million, missing analyst expectations of $285.5 million.



The firm’s results come as energy companies attempt to prove to investors that they have gained a more stable footing on stronger commodity prices.



The oil and gas industry was sent into a tailspin last year, as the coronavirus pandemic coincided with a historic demand shock, falling commodity prices, evaporating profits, unprecedented write downs and tens of thousands of job cuts. It will likely become known as the worst year in the history of oil markets, the head of the International Energy Agency has previously said.



The world’s largest oil and gas companies are now seeking to put it behind them, pointing instead to the prospect of an economic rebound in 2021 and hopes for a fuel demand recovery in the coming months.



Shares of BP are up more than 6% year-to-date, having tanked almost 46% last year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Oil prices</h2>



International benchmark&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=@LCO.1">Brent</a>&nbsp;crude futures traded at $56.94a barrel on Tuesday morning, up over 1%, while U.S.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=@CL.1">West Texas Intermediate&nbsp;</a>crude futures stood at $54.17, around 1.2% higher.



Oil prices have steadily improved since the start of the year, supported by ongoing production cuts and the mass rollout of Covid vaccines.



However, major forecasters, including the IEA and OPEC, have warned the 2021 outlook for the oil market is still clouded by pandemic fears.



An upsurge in coronavirus cases in recent weeks has led to renewed lockdown measures and travel restrictions in some countries.

Energy, Environment & Climate Change

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Handful of cities driving urban greenhouse gas emissions – study

More needed: G7 nations agree to boost climate finance

CEOs and investors push world leaders for stronger climate action

Show us the plan: Investors push companies to come clean on climate

BP reports full-year net loss of $5.7 billion after ‘brutal’ year

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Energy, Environment & Climate Change

AfDB head says gas remains key for stable power supply in Africa

Nations make new pledges to cut methane, save forests at climate summit

Deliver on promises, developing world tells rich at climate talks

South Africa seeks over $27 bln of finance for shift from coal

As Africa’s glaciers melt, millions face drought and floods, UN says

Africa calls for climate finance tracker after donors fall short

Energy crisis could threaten global economic recovery, says IEA

IEA says clean energy progress remains ‘far too slow’

U.N. panel says it can’t rule on climate case brought by Greta Thunberg

African governments want climate finance to hit $1.3 trillion by 2030

Climate change impact mitigation for Africa’s development

South African farmers dream of drought cover on climate front line

Handful of cities driving urban greenhouse gas emissions – study

More needed: G7 nations agree to boost climate finance

CEOs and investors push world leaders for stronger climate action

Show us the plan: Investors push companies to come clean on climate

BP reports full-year net loss of $5.7 billion after ‘brutal’ year

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