Get Guardian on GoogleAfrican climate negotiators at the ongoing COP31 climate conference in Antalya, Türkiye, have been urged to establish binding safeguards against corporate capture of climate policies, including conflict-of-interest rules to prevent fossil fuel companies, major industrial polluters and conflicted private consultants from determining national climate priorities.
This is among the recommendations in two reports published by Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), in conjunction with the Make Big Polluters Pay Coalition (MBPP Africa).
The reports, Four Years On: Examining Nigeria’s Just Transition Plan and Nationally Determined Contributions in Africa: A Five-Country Analysis, urged wealthy nations, which bore the greatest responsibility for global emissions, to provide direct, grant-based financial support to African countries rather than loans that could deepen their debt burden.
A statement read by CAPPA’s Assistant Executive Director, Zikora Ibeh, noted that the findings speak directly to the choices before COP31.
The organisations, at the presentation of the reports, noted that Africa “contributes barely three per cent to global emissions but bears a disproportionate share of climate impacts,” leaving the continent with the additional burden of borrowing to address damage it did little to cause.
Nigeria’s energy transition policies, financing arrangements and social protection mechanisms were examined in the first report, while the second assessed the climate commitments of Nigeria, Cameroon, South Africa, Togo and Uganda.
According to the organisations, although African countries have committed to reducing emissions and expanding renewable energy, their policies and investments often contradict these goals, particularly where governments continue to promote oil and gas development.
Nigeria’s ambition to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060, for instance, exists alongside a target to increase oil production to three million barrels per day by 2030. Cameroon is also pursuing negotiations for five oil exploration blocks with Murphy West Africa and Octavia Energy.
The publications queried the promotion of natural gas as a transition fuel, noting that methane, its principal component, is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) responsible for nearly 30 per cent of warming since the Industrial Revolution.
The second report also raised concerns about the growing reliance on carbon markets and offsetting mechanisms, warning that they could allow big polluters to delay emissions reductions by compensating for their pollution through projects such as commercial forestry and plantations.
Earlier in his opening address, Executive Director of CAPPA, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said the reports provide an opportunity for African governments to reassess their energy policies and climate commitments in the interest of ordinary people and affected communities.
MEANWHILE, observers have pointed to the absence of some big names, with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham the only leader from a G7 country scheduled to address the summit.
While European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen is coming to Antalya, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are skipping the event.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi are also absent from the most recent list.
“It is a shame that some of the bigger European leaders aren’t coming. We need Europe to be showing up strongly at this COP,” Cosima Cassel, a climate diplomacy expert at think-tank E3G, said.
