Climate leadership from developing countries

(Eco Business, 21 Oct 2019) Climate solutions will not come solely from the West. Developing countries also have an opportunity to lead this transformation, write Lee White and Tanguy Gahouma.

When Gabon ratified the 2015 Paris climate agreement, its real work was just beginning. The main challenge was to find ways to conserve the country’s natural environment and address the growing climate crisis, while not limiting economic opportunities for its people.

Almost four years later, we have a deeper understanding of the crisis facing us, and the need to reconcile our country’s development with its climate response is greater and more urgent than ever.

Developing countries such as ours cannot follow the same development path that Western economies have taken over the last century and a half. We know the dire consequences of rapid industrialisation for the global climate and environment, so we must find a different way to improve living standards.

It is only right, therefore, that advanced economies provide additional technological and financial assistance to the developing world. After all, this is the price of our shared responsibility for the planet. But climate solutions will not come solely from the West. Developing countries – including Gabon – also have an opportunity to lead this transformation.

Economic growth need not conflict with environmental protection and climate mitigation. In Gabon, the government is committed to reducing national greenhouse-gas emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2025. As Minister of Forests, Oceans, Environment, and Climate Change and the head of the National Climate Council, respectively, we know that stewardship of the rainforests that cover nearly nine-tenths of the country will help us achieve this goal. But we also know that our forests and natural resources are vital for economic and social development.

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Eco Business, 21 Oct 2019: Climate leadership from developing countries