President Cyril Ramaphosa delivering a Special Address to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Picture: Supplied/GCIS
President Cyril Ramaphosa has used the global stage during the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meetings in Davos, Switzerland, to call for equity in climate financing and disaster resilience.
Delivering a special address on South Africa’s priorities during its G20 Presidency, Ramaphosa reiterated how the Global South was facing a lack of predictable financing for development and climate change, high levels of debt and vulnerability to pandemics.
Ramaphosa said debt sustainability for low-income countries and mobilising finance for a just energy transition were just two of the four priorities of South Africa’s G20 Presidency.
Debt sustainability is not merely a financial matter; it is a matter of survival for numerous nations grappling with high debt levels and the consequential vulnerability to economic fluctuations, pandemics, and natural disasters.
“We will seek agreement on increasing the quality and quantity of climate finance flows to developing economies as agreed at various UN climate change summits,” Ramaphosa said.
“We will continue to call on global financial institutions on the redirection of Special Drawing Rights, which are left unused. It is simply not fair that over 60% of Special Drawing Rights go to a handful of wealthy countries.
“These drawing rights should be redirected to enable countries in Africa and other parts of the Global South to realise their developmental aspirations – to enable them to invest in infrastructure, in industrial development, in education and training, and in health care.”
Ramaphosa also said developing countries needed to leverage private capital and use innovative forms of finance and taxation to raise additional resources for sustainable development.
He said global finance institutions should derisk and support more financing for emerging and developing economies
“We need to support country initiatives aimed at addressing climate change, such as the Just Energy Transition Partnership that South Africa has entered into with a number of countries of the Global North,” he said.
“As we accelerate the transition to low-carbon economies in a manner that is just and inclusive, we must recognise the damage that climate change has already wrought. And will continue to wreak.
“In light of this, South Africa has therefore made the strengthening of disaster resilience as another of the priorities of its G20 Presidency. The increasing rate of climate-induced natural disasters is affecting countries that can least afford the costs of recovery and rebuilding.”
In order to address this, Ramaphosa said special financing and insurance mechanisms must be made available to scale up funding for post-disaster reconstruction.
Another of South Africa’s priorities for its G20 Presidency is to harness critical minerals for inclusive growth and development.
Ramaphosa said a G20 framework on green industrialisation and investments was needed to ensure progress towards a grand bargain that promotes value addition to critical minerals close to the source of extraction.
“We also need the development of low carbon manufacturing value chains which can support decarbonisation and industrial development. There is a need to promote beneficiation and local value addition of resources at source resulting in an additive rather than an extractive relationship,” he said.
“As minerals extraction accelerates to match the needs of the energy transition, the countries and local communities endowed with these resources must be the ones to benefit the most.
“We will use this G20 to champion the use of critical minerals – through a programme of green industrialisation – as an engine for growth and development in Africa and the rest of the Global South.”
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