President Emmerson Mnangagwa Tuesday called on developed nations to prioritize compensating developing nations who are heavily affected by high carbon emissions due to industrialization.
Mnangagwa was addressing the Conference of Parties (COP27) delegates in Egypt.
“Those most responsible for the climate crisis must listen and prioritize climate finance to help prevent disasters and climate victims recover. Commitments we have made and continue to make can only make a difference when we act on them.,” Mnangagwa said.
The COP27 comes at a time when the world is warming because of emissions produced by humans, mostly from burning fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal.
Global temperatures have risen 1.1C and are heading towards 1.5C, according to the UN’s climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
More developing countries are demanding that developed countries must compensate for the high carbon emissions.
Despite an early breakthrough that put the issue of compensating poorer countries for the impact of climate change on the agenda for the first time, delegates are now aiming harsh criticism at each other over issues ranging from climate reparations to funding for mitigation and adaptation in poorer.
Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe will see greenhouse gas emissions curbed to 44.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030.
“My country has also integrated gender issues in the Revised Nationally Determined Contributions. Greater progress would be made on our climate goals were it not for the albatross of illegal economic sanctions imposed on our country. We demand the immediate lifting of these unwarranted and punitive sanctions,” he said.
United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres took time to warn stakeholders including world leaders against putting the phenomenon on the back burner.
The Secretary-General said the UN Climate Conference is a reminder that the answer is in the hands of stakeholders.
“And the clock is ticking. We are in the fight of our lives. And we are losing. Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing. Global temperatures keep rising. And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible. We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator. The war in Ukraine, conflict in the Sahel, and violence and unrest in so many other places are terrible crises plaguing today’s world,” he said.
The Just Energy Transition Plan — backed by the UK, US, France, Germany and the European Union — is seen as a blueprint for other coal-dependent developing nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
If temperatures rise 1.7 to 1.8C above 1850s levels, the IPCC estimates that half the world’s population could be exposed to life-threatening heat and humidity.
To prevent this, 194 countries signed the Paris Agreement in 2015, pledging to “pursue efforts” to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C.
