Lee White said governments were still not behaving as if global warming were a crisis and he feared for the future he was leaving for his children. He said $100 billion of promised climate finance from rich countries had not reached poor countries, leading to distrust in the UN climate process. The UN has billed Cop27, which starts next week in Sharm el-Sheikh, as “Africa’s climate conference”, and loss and damage financing for countries facing the worst effects of global warming will be a key issue. . “With everything that’s happened in the last year in the Horn of Africa and in Pakistan – those places really count,” White said. “But with the once-in-500-year drought in Europe, wildfires in France and the New York subway turning into Niagara Falls, we may be at a point where things are getting bad enough that developed nations are starting to they get the mood more. seriously. Gabon’s Environment Minister Lee White at the COP26 summit in Glasgow. Photo: Alastair Grant/AP “It’s horrible to say, but until more people die in developed countries because of the climate crisis, it’s not going to change,” White said. Recent reports show just how close the planet is to climate catastrophe, with scientists warning that the world has reached a “truly bleak moment”. Gabon, one of the most forested nations and home to more than half of Africa’s remaining endangered forest elephants, is making one of the largest sales of carbon credits resulting from protecting its section of the Congo Basin rainforest, the second largest in the world and the last to absorb more carbon than it releases. White said his country, which derives about 60 percent of its government revenue from oil, has accepted that the oil economy is going away and that more emphasis needs to be placed on sustainable forestry and timber. “We haven’t really actively promoted the death of the oil industry like Costa Rica,” he said, referring to the Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance launched at Cop26 in Glasgow by the Central American country and Denmark. “We recognize that the oil industry will disappear.” The most important stories on the planet. Get all the week’s environmental news – the good, the bad and the must-haves Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The Manchester-born politician said he had only seen small amounts of climate funding for his country despite big promises, leading to frustration with the UN climate process. “Time and time again, developed nations have promised and failed to deliver. They have committed to reducing emissions and are not delivering enough. They have committed to funding and that funding never seems to materialize. We did not create the problem and so you would expect a more sincere commitment from developed nations and you would expect them to honor their word and commitments,” he said. “I have three children. I tell them my absences are about trying to save the planet. They get it, because it’s real. We’re creating a really big problem for the next generation.”
