Global Climate Policy Hypocrisy: A Geopolitical Game or A Quest For Change?

South Africa, France, and Germany signed a deal that would see the Southern African nation receive about 300 million Dollars in concessional payments in return for enacting policies and programmes that would see it reduce its reliance on coal as a form of energy.

On the flip side, this was a move applauded as it had clear incentives which meant the development and increase in South Africa's climate-friendly energy generation capacity like Solar and Wind energy and this would also include shutting down certain aspects of its coal production generators. In 2021 Germany paid the South African government a further 800 million dollars to cease using coal for a stipulated time period and fast forward to 2022-2023 Germany's import of South African coal has increased eightfold.  

African countries are more often the target of climate policy scolding from countries that live in the Global North and these demands range from more efforts in conservation, less reliance on fossil fuels, and a greater push to move to alternative sources of energy. The biggest problem with this policy push is the continent accounts for less than 10 percent of Global emissions and suffers the brunt of climate change effects as we've seen with the prolonged droughts in East Africa followed by flash floods brought about by sudden heavy rains that wash away crops and kill animals.

This is the level of hypocrisy countries like Germany have adopted in the case of South Africa. All talk of progressive climate change policies where thrown aside in order for politicians that were under pressure due to the Ukraine war to save face. South Africa like many African countries was and is a geopolitical pawn in this and this again disproportionately affects the poorest in South Africa.

South Africa shut down its coal mine with no clear alternative energy policy in place which in turn has led or contributed to the massive power shortages the country is facing hence this has created an energy deficit in the country. In turn, a lot of citizens have to make do and this has led to them cutting down forest-gazetted areas to produce energy sources for household maintenance issues.

It not only infringes on the Forest areas but affects the animals that live there hence causing ecological imbalances. In order for Climate change policies to be effective in African nations like South Africa certain factors have to be taken into consideration. First and foremost, most African Countries don't have 100 percent access to electricity amongst their populace with most languishing below the 50 percent quota. Second, reliance on fossil fuels is rampant but countries can not move forward without a clear alternative police plan. Third, African countries must learn to rely on their own funding for Alternative energy programs in order to avoid being victims of geopolitical chess play.

Otherwise, climate summits and speeches will only cause more exchanges of signatures, carbon emissions from kilometers of jet travel by politicians or diplomats, and more wood cutting in order to produce the paper on which documents and memorandum of understandings that will never be implemented are written.

Edited by: Muhammad Abdullahi Ibrahim