221122E – CLIMATE FINANCING AT TOP OF COP27 AGENDA

Maputo, 7 Nov (AIM) – Mozambique’s Minister of the Environment, Ivete Maibaze has stressed that, as far as Mozambique is concerned, the key areas of concern at the United Nations climate conference in the Egyptian resort of Sharm-al-Sheikh (COP27) include ensuring finance for the energy transition in the developing world.

“The Mozambican government regards COP27 as a great stage for levering climate financing, in order to achieve the transition to a low carbon economy in line with Mozambique’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)”, she said.

A further priority for the government was the area of losses and damage due to climate change which, for the first time, it is placing at the top of the agenda.

“The Mozambican government agrees with the position of the Group of African negotiators that COP27 should produce a concrete result in terms of establishing an effective financial mechanism for dealing with the losses and damage associated with climate change”, said Maibaze.

The Mozambican government also hopes that its hydroelectric assets will benefit from part of the 8.5 billion US dollars allocated by Britain, the US, Germany, France and the European Union to support South Africa in its energy transition.

Mozambique has the potential to increase dramatically exports of hydropower to South Africa, but to date the South African electricity company Eskom has shown little to no interest in increasing its purchases of Mozambican power.

But without a firm commitment from Eskom to buy the electricity, foreign investors are unlikely to provide the funds necessary to implement hydro-electric projects that have been on thedrawing board for years, or decades.

Foremost among these, according to Maibaze, is the Mphanda Nkuwa dam on the Zambezi river, which should be built about 60 kilometres downstream from the existing Cahora Bassa dam.

The Minister also stressed the importance of debt-for-climate swaps – that is financing the transition to a low carbon economy without plunging the country further into debt.
(AIM)
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