Walking the Talk
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: Vanessa Nakate, Vladislav Kaim, Ernest Gibson
- Published: September 2, 2021
Overview
- Climate activists from Uganda, Moldova, and Fiji provide candid advice for policymakers at COP26.
- Young people are organizing across continents via the internet and call for urgent policy action to address the climate crisis.
- Contributors: Vanessa Nakate (Uganda), Vladislav Kaim (Moldova), Ernest Gibson (Fiji).
Vanessa Nakate (Uganda) — key findings and demands
- The climate crisis is accelerating, evidenced by "massive floods this summer in Nigeria, Uganda, China, and Western Europe" and "raging wildfires and fierce heat waves in North America and Turkey."
- Disproportionate impact: "Madagascar’s 28 million people produce less carbon than a Western city the size of Cincinnati, yet they face a historic drought and famine."
- Electricity demand in Africa "is likely to double by 2030."
- Urgent call to stop fossil fuels:
- "We need to immediately stop digging and burning fossil fuels to meet the climate thresholds for a stable world."
- "Most of the fossil fuels currently sitting in reserves need to remain unburned for us to have a chance of keeping below even 2°C."
- "2°C of warming would be a death sentence for countries like mine."
- Finance and investment priorities:
- "Subsidies, development finance and private finance must stop funding fossil fuel infrastructure now."
- "Huge public and private investment must instead go into scaling renewable energy around the world."
- Non-technological solutions highlighted:
- Project Drawdown lists "educating girls and family planning as the fifth most impactful global climate solution to keep temperatures under 1.5°C of warming."
Vladislav Kaim (Moldova) — key findings and finance-focused recommendations
- Moldova described as "arguably Europe’s most vulnerable country to climate change."
- Climate finance context:
- The climate finance target of "$100 billion a year" since "2009" symbolizes broken promises and lack of political will.
- Policy and institutional priorities:
- Emphasizes linkages between COP26 outcomes and other milestones, including "the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank" and the "Group of Twenty (G20) finance ministers meeting in Rome right before the start of the COP26 Leaders’ Summit."
- Calls for a "comprehensive, all-hands-on-deck debt restructuring for the most affected countries" using instruments such as "debt-for-nature and debt-for-climate swaps and more."
- Critiques the G20's "Debt Service Suspension Initiative" as "merely a duct tape solution to a monumental problem."
- Urges multilateral development banks to "go fully green and 50 percent adaptation-focused by 2024."
- Conditional outlook:
- "If parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change rise to the challenge, then the climate finance agenda at COP26 stands a chance to win."
Ernest Gibson (Fiji) — community-centered framing and governance proposals
- Reframes the climate crisis as multidimensional: "an ethical issue, a human rights issue, an economic issue. It is about peace and security."
- Calls for systemic change: "take charge of this capitalist, greed-driven system and fundamentally change the world we inhabit."
- Community and measurement priorities:
- Warns against treating "communities as problems to be solved and not as agents of change and contributors to the solution."
- Advocates drawing on community knowledge that "foster[s] and sustain[s] a healthy relationship with the environment."
- Urges adjustment of success metrics to ensure accountability "to grassroots communities and the people on the frontlines of the climate crisis."
- Youth participation and protection:
- Notes unique barriers young people face in policy spaces and calls for "mechanisms that protect young people so they can challenge the 'powers that be' without fear of retaliation."
Consolidated policy recommendations (as expressed by contributors)
- Immediately stop funding and building new fossil fuel infrastructure; keep most fossil fuel reserves unburned to avoid exceeding 2°C.
- Redirect subsidies, development finance, and private finance toward massively scaling renewable energy.
- Recognize and fund non-technological high-impact solutions (example: "educating girls and family planning" as ranked by Project Drawdown to keep temperatures under 1.5°C).
- Deliver on long-standing climate finance commitments, including the "$100 billion a year" target established in "2009."
- Pursue comprehensive debt restructuring for climate-vulnerable countries, including "debt-for-nature and debt-for-climate swaps."
- Ensure multilateral development banks "go fully green and 50 percent adaptation-focused by 2024."
- Align COP26 outcomes with related global finance meetings (IMF, World Bank, G20) to secure coordinated action.
- Center communities as agents of change and create safeguards to enable youth participation without retaliation.
F&D Magazine — Walking the Talk (September 2021).
Content in this bundle
- لكي يصدق الفعل القول
- Walking the Talk - IMF F&D
- Pasar del dicho al hecho● Finanzas y Desarrollo ● Septiembre de 2021
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- От слов к делу – Финансы и развитие – Нельзя терять время– сентябрь 2021 года
- 言出必行 - 金融与发展 - 国际货币基金组织季刊 2021年9月号·第58卷·第3期