Water shortage affects 200,000 in Namuno, Cabo Delgado - Radio Mozambique
Photo: Twitter / @UNFCCC
The Mozambican government is optimistic about the possible outcome of the United Nations climate change Conference (COP26), under way in the Scottish city of Glasgow,
Speaking on Sunday to Mozambican journalists in Glasgow, Deputy Foreign Minister Manuel Goncalves said “Mozambique is taking part in COP26 in the hope that world leaders will take decisions that drive the implementation of environmental protocols, conventions and agreements, including the Paris agreement on climate change”.
The debates will begin on Monday among the heads of state and government”, said Goncalves. “Then there will be ministerial meetings to continue negotiating environmental matters. We cannot be pessimistic before the event has even started”.
The Mozambican delegation is led by Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario, representing President Filipe Nyusi. Rosario is scheduled to address the conference on Tuesday.
#AconteAgora #Mozambique lança atualização de sua Contribuição Nacionalmente Determinada durante @COP26 #Glasgow
O documento registra os principais compromissos e contribuições de 🇲🇿 p/ conseguir alcançar as metas estabelecidas no #ParisAgreement
Assita➡️https://t.co/9SKsmtdpqP pic.twitter.com/KpcWpQH20v
— ONU Moçambique (@ONUMocambique) November 1, 2021
One of the matters under discussion will certainly be the transition away from fossil fuels. Under the Paris agreement coal should cease to be used as a fuel by 2050. Mozambique possesses major coal deposits, and just two decades ago, it was imagined that coal would be a major driver of Mozambican development.
Now coal is a dying fuel. The main company exporting coal from Mozambique is the Brazilian mining giant Vale – but it has announced its intention to withdraw. There is still a market for coking coal, since it is used in steel production, but to mine coking coal large amounts of cheaper thermal coal must first be removed.
When the Mozambican mines opened, the thermal coal could be sold, but the market is disappearing, which means that the thermal coal will likely be left in unsightly piles, scattered around the Moatize coal basin in Tete province.
Goncalves said that Mozambique favours a “gradual transition”, since it fears a chaotic impact if coal production and exports are abruptly terminated.
“We want a transition in the elimination of this fuel”, he added. “Mozambique will present the challenges, and ask for support from the developed countries and other cooperation partners in mitigating the effects of climate change”.
He said that Mozambique will also transmit its own experience in dealing with natural disasters, such as floods and cyclones, which have become more damaging in recent years because of the impact of climate change.
Climate activists have descended on Glasgow to make clear their anger at the slow progress in dealing with the threat of catastrophe, if the rise in global temperatures cannot be held to1.5 degrees centigrade.
The star of COP26 is not any government figure, but the 18 year old Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg, whose “School strike for climate” has become one of the most visible forms of protest against the inaction displayed by most politicians,
In Glasgow on Saturday, protesters were holding banners that declared “The era of injustice is over – climate justice now” and “Climate refugees welcome”.
The organisers of the conference seem determined to misread the public mood – they have not yet even invited Greta Thurnberg to address the conference.
Today leaders from around the world are gathering in Glasgow for #COP26
They will come together to make clear their commitment to tackle climate change and signal ambition for the summit.
Learn more 👇#TogetherForOurPlanet
— COP26 (@COP26) November 1, 2021
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