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Anthony Bebbington

Dean Noha El-Mikawy chats with Anthony Bebbington

May 29, 2023

Noha El-Mikawy, dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, chats with Ford Foundation International Director for Natural Resources and Climate Change and Higgins Professor of Environment and Society in the Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, USA Anthony Bebbington.

It is also important to recognize, protect and enhance the rights of Indigenous and other local communities who will be affected by the extraction of minerals required for the build out of renewable and decarbonized energy systems. Critical to enhance the presence of these communities as well as other civil organizations in future COPs,” said Bebbington.

Question: In your opinion, what have been the key outcomes of COP 27 and what work still remains for COP 28?

Bebbington: One significant outcome was the announcement of a commitment to establish a loss and damage fund. Countries of the Global South have long demanded funds that would recognize the losses that they have suffered and will incur as a result of climate change caused by countries elsewhere, largely from the Global North. This commitment is a real step forward and gives Global South countries a base from which to advocate for more. However, the devil will be in the detail as the specifics of this fund are hashed out over the coming year. On the downside, the international community in Sharm el Sheikh largely continued to ignore the urgent need for the elimination of fossil fuel dependency in our energy systems. There was no real commitment to the phasing out of oil and gas. And many are concerned that there will be little or no progress on this issue at COP 28 in the UAE, given the importance of hydrocarbon exports to the host’s own economy, the ongoing impacts of the war in Ukraine on energy systems, and the continuing need of the West for fossil fuels.

Question: Another big agenda item going into COP 27 was funding a just energy transition, especially for countries with high dependency on extractive industries that have high carbon emissions. How do you see the situation now, after COP 27 in Egypt and the G20 meeting in Indonesia?

Bebbington: While the international community is making progress in its commitments to the energy transition, these are still insufficient for the enormity of the climate mitigation challenge, and the road ahead is still long. In the G20 meeting that took place in Bali on November 15-16 of 2022 (overlapping with the COP), Indonesia announced a $20 billion partnership fund to support its own energy transition. South Africa had announced a similar $8.5 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (often called a JETP for short) at COP 26 in Glasgow, and at Sharm el Sheikh, was able to announce specifics regarding how the JETP would be financed during COP 27. This represents a significant step forward in the implementation of this JETP commitment, though again, vastly larger volumes of finance will be needed for a national Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP).

To the extent that energy transitions are ultimately national processes, these national financing partnerships are important. But in addition to finance, the success of these transitions will depend on their alignment with national contexts, levels of political will, and the extent to which it is possible to build political coalitions among diverse actors that might drive a national consensus regarding the form that transitions will take, the relative roles of public and private sectors in these transitions, and the distribution of the costs and benefits of transition across different actors. At some point, these different national energy transition funds and processes could collectively build momentum for developing principles and standards that would inform global mechanisms for financing transition processes.

Question: Your work with Clark, Manchester and Bath universities has helped establish interdisciplinary research on mining, sustainability, justice, and social policy. Now, as markets move towards low-carbon industries, we find ourselves increasingly reliant on new types of minerals that happen to be in countries that are not known for engaging local communities in inclusive ways. How to put community engagement, indigenous people, and inclusion on the agenda as we move forward? 

Bebbington: In COP 26 in Glasgow, world leaders recognized the importance of Indigenous Peoples and their rights in a way that was unprecedented for the COP and UNFCCC process. A group of countries and philanthropic foundations pledged $1.7 billion over five years to support the land, territorial, resource and other rights of Indigenous Peoples in forest environments, given both their inherent importance and their vital role in mitigating climate change. COP 27 in Sharm el Sheikh was a bit more mixed. While the presence of Indigenous People and their organizations was once again striking and progress in implementing the Glasgow IPLC pledge was debated, there were no significant additional commitments, and the rights of Indigenous people were not prominent in final statements and agreements in Sharm el Sheikh. Stronger statements regarding inclusion and consent by indigenous people in concessional and contractual agreements affecting the natural resources upon which their lives and livelihoods depend were not made.  

It is also important to recognize, protect and enhance the rights of Indigenous and other local communities that will be affected by the extraction of minerals required for the build-out of renewable and decarbonized energy systems. Demand for these minerals is going to be enormous, and many lie beneath community lands and territories. It is also critical to enhance the presence of these communities as well as other civil organizations in future COPs: to exercise their voice, to have access to decision-makers and negotiators, and to broaden debates and relationships of accountability. Given that leaders and negotiators rarely venture beyond the COP’s restricted areas (the so-called Blue Zone), civil society, Indigenous, community and civil society leaders must also have access to these zones. Currently, we have an anti-democratic situation in that unaccountable lobbyists for hydrocarbon industries have extensive access, while representative civil society and grassroots leaders struggle to get accreditation (or affordable accommodation) in order to have similar access. This is an issue that COP 28 must tackle head-on if it is to have any legitimacy.

About Anthony Bebbington

Anthony Bebbinhton is Ford Foundation's international director for natural resources and climate change and Higgins professor of environment and society in the Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, USA. Bebbington held professorship positions at Manchester, Cambridge, and Colorado. He co-authored Governing Extractive Industries: Politics, Histories, Ideas.