I am a South African of Indian origin and as the world prepares for COP29, I am reminded that this climate summit isn’t just about finance – it’s about redefining the future we want. For too long, countries in the Global South have looked to the Global North as a blueprint for development and progress. But the path taken by the Global North, fueled by fossil fuels, exploitation, and environmental degradation, has driven and accelerated the climate crisis we face today.
The Global South does not need to replicate that model. We can achieve the abundance and growth we seek while ensuring our communities thrive sustainably and equitably.
I often think of my grandmother’s stories about British rule in India. Her family, like millions of others, faced unimaginable hardship during the war. The British plundered India’s natural resources and subjected its people to cruel conditions. With many parts of India suffering through famine, people were given food meant for pigs. But it was more than just physical hunger – it was a deliberate destruction of culture, and traditions and the demise of an entire nation.
Even something as personal as how women wore sarees was policed. Many women of my great-grandmother’s generation wore sarees without a blouse, a common and accepted practice at the time. However, in her daughter’s generation, the British influence introduced the blouse as a marker of “modesty”. This colonial brainwashing shifted Indian culture from open-mindedness to conservatism, leading many Indians to reject their heritage and embrace Western norms. Today, after decades, Indians around the world are reclaiming age-old traditions and taking pride in their Indian identity. Colonial rule was a destructive force, extracting from both the earth and the people, erasing traditions and cultures with the same ruthless intent.
The Global North’s Prosperity – At Our Expense
South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Senegal, DRC, Cameroon and many more African countries have all been sacrificed for the prosperity of the Global North. These Global North countries have grown wealthy by extracting “resources” from the Global South, using fossil fuels, and exploiting our oceans, forests and land while subjecting us to unsustainable practices that have now brought us to the brink of catastrophe. Shell, for instance, may have finally left Nigeria after nearly a century of devastation, but the environmental and social scars remain. Communities still battle the consequences of oil spills, poisoned land, and lost livelihoods.
South Africa has a major reliance on fossil fuels which has set us on a destructive path. Just 30 miles from Johannesburg, in the Vaal Triangle, 1.7 million people are living in a crossfire of some of the most dangerous pollution on Earth, with communities suffering respiratory diseases, birth defects, problems with eyesight, hearing and more.
In Tanzania, the Maasai are being forced from their ancestral lands under the guise of “conservation”. The government is auctioning off Maasai land to trophy hunters and carbon traders. Carbon credits are nothing but greenwashed schemes that allow corporations to continue polluting while displacing Indigenous Peoples. The Maasai, already at the frontline of the climate crisis, are being pushed even further to the margins.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), known as the “heart of Africa,” is rich in biodiversity and “resources” like oil, cobalt and copper. Yet, this wealth is a double-edged sword, as multinational corporations from the Global North exploit these “resources”, causing environmental destruction, conflict, and immense human suffering. The local population faces displacement, child labour, and toxic pollution of their land and rivers. Corporate-driven rampant deforestation threatens the Congo Basin, the world’s largest carbon sink and second-largest rainforest, jeopardising livelihoods and resulting in severe human rights violations against Indigenous communities.
Indigenous farming practices that have nourished communities for generations are under threat from corporate-controlled agriculture. Farmers like Samuel Wathome, who cultivate crops from indigenous seeds, risk fines or imprisonment for sharing them in Kenya. These seeds are crucial for food security and biodiversity, as they are adapted to local climates. The Kenyan government must amend unjust laws to protect farmers’ rights to exchange and grow indigenous seeds, prioritising local livelihoods and age-old practices over the profits of multinational “certified” seed corporations that thrive at their expense.
Local fishing communities in Western Africa once thrived through sustainable fishing practices that protected fish populations. Today, the industrial fishmeal and fish oil sector is exploiting fish populations in African waters, damaging ecosystems and robbing communities of their livelihoods to feed animals in the European Union and Asia, while the people of Africa go hungry.
Africa’s Time to Lead through Sustainable Practices
The Global South has the power to build a future rooted in renewable energy, sustainable farming, and indigenous knowledge – practices that have sustained us for generations. By reclaiming our land, seas, and forests, we can create a future rooted in sustainable practices.
At COP29, we must push our leaders to do all they can to make this future a reality. Climate finance isn’t charity or a handout, it’s a debt that the Global North owes to the Global South. Africa has contributed very little to the climate crisis but bears the heaviest burden. We need funding for climate adaptation, mitigation, and sustainable development, not empty promises or false solutions like carbon credits.
The world is watching COP29. It must do better and deliver climate and environmental justice- for Africa, for the Global South, and for every community fighting for their right to thrive on a planet that belongs to us all.
AT COP29 WE’LL HAND THIS PETITION TO THE AFRICAN DELEGATION
Tell the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) at COP29 to call for making polluters pay to generate funds for climate action.
