From carbon railways to geoengineering smokescreens, the climate crisis is being repackaged for profit while those least responsible are pushed further to the edge. The Global South is no longer just demanding inclusion – it is demanding a rewrite of the system.
By Ethical Business Africa | June 27, 2025
As the UN climate talks came to a faltering close in Bonn, Germany, African campaigners and climate-vulnerable nations warned that the global green transition is increasingly shaped by broken promises, extractive economics, and risky experiments – threatening to repeat the injustices of the fossil fuel era.
At the heart of these concerns is the Lobito Corridor, a U.S. and EU-backed railway project to export cobalt and copper from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zambia. While framed as a key route for clean energy minerals, critics argue the initiative mirrors colonial-era extraction.
“This can’t just be about faster raw material exports to the Global North,” said Lorenzo Cotula of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). “If we’re building a low-carbon world by replicating high-carbon injustices, then we’ve failed before we’ve begun.”
Anabella Rosemberg, of Climate Action Network International (CAN-I), added: “We are not transitioning to a climate-compatible future – we’re reproducing all the mistakes of the past with new branding.”
Tripling adaptation finance, demanding accountability
As talk of mineral supply chains dominated one thread of negotiations, a louder and more urgent cry echoed through Bonn’s halls: finance the future, or there won’t be one.
Evans Njewa, chair of the UN Group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), called for tripling adaptation finance by 2030, noting that the previous COP26 target to double it by 2025 may not even be met.
“We are nowhere near the 1.5°C path,” Njewa said. “The warming recorded in 2024 is a climate emergency. Every fraction of a degree is costing lives – in cyclones in Malawi and Mozambique, floods in the DRC and Nepal, and droughts across East Africa.”
He decried wealthy nations’ backtracking: “We are already enduring the most devastating impacts, despite contributing the least to global emissions.”
Anne Rasmussen, lead climate negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), echoed that frustration: “AOSIS is bewildered by the backwards tracking on finance. Climate change is accelerating – why are we not acting with equal urgency?”
Rich nations retreat, fossil fuels advance
The Bonn talks, meant to lay the groundwork for COP30 in Belém, Brazil, were overshadowed by signs of retreat from some of the world’s largest climate polluters.
The United States, under a new Republican administration, is dismantling key climate policies. Though historically the largest emitter, the U.S. now plans no adaptation finance for 2025 or 2026, according to CARE International.
New Zealand quit the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance and reopened fossil fuel drilling. In Germany, a shift in spending priorities favors military expansion over climate finance. Meanwhile, in the EU, mainstream and far-right parties have teamed up to delay deforestation legislation critical to the climate fight.
“This global backslide,” Njewa warned, “is a betrayal of both science and the vulnerable.”
Progress in talk, not action
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell tried to highlight progress, noting that the Paris Agreement, now ten years old, prevented a path to 5°C warming. “We’re now headed for 3°C. It shows how far we’ve come – and how far we still have to go.”
That distance is stark. While the UNFCCC touted tools like Panama’s net-zero verification under the new transparency framework, many noted little headway was made on finalizing the $1.3 trillion finance package agreed at COP29 in Baku or defining metrics for climate adaptation success.
Instead, observers lamented a sharp increase in geoengineering talk—a sign that world leaders may be preparing to gamble with the planet rather than fix what’s broken.
Geoengineering: “A climate scam”
At a June 24 press conference, Kwami Kpondzo, of the HOME Alliance Africa Working Group, described geoengineering as “colonialism in a new form.”
Concerned voices grew louder as experiments in ocean-based carbon capture and solar radiation modification were mentioned in negotiations and side events. Many fear such technologies are being quietly embedded in the UNFCCC process without proper consultation – particularly with Indigenous and African communities.
Mfoniso Xael, from Nigeria’s Health of Mother Earth Foundation, criticized the Global North for shifting attention to risky, untested fixes rather than cutting emissions.
“Africa should not be your lab,” she said. “The very idea of manipulating our skies or oceans to fix problems others created is not just unethical – it is unjust.”
Tamra Gilbertson, tracking the talks for the Indigenous Environmental Network, noted concerns that next-generation climate plans could include geoengineering offsets that endanger both land rights and environmental integrity.
Youth climate leader Dylan Hamilton put it bluntly: “There is no future with fossil fuel expansion. There is no future with climate capitalism. Geoengineering is not a solution – it’s a smokescreen.”
Civil Society speaks: “No Visa, No Voice”
Frustration also spilled into the streets outside the conference center. Over 200 civil society and Indigenous groups protested visa rejections that barred many Global South delegates from attending, urging the UNFCCC to move future talks to more accessible cities like Nairobi or Bangkok.
Sudanese activist Roaa Alobeid, denied a visa despite submitting 15 documents, sent an emotional message: “I’m not there. I will never be there. Why? Because I’m not worth it?”
Sources:
- UNFCCC Bonn Climate Conference Statements, June 2025
- IIED Policy Brief: Lobito Corridor and Mineral Justice
- CARE International: Adaptation Finance Tracker
- Climate Policy Initiative: Global Landscape of Climate Finance
- Oil Change International: Blended Finance Report
- CAN-I, Power Shift Africa & NRGI Press Conference
- Indigenous Environmental Network & HOME Alliance Africa
- Interview excerpts from AOSIS, LDC Chair, UNFCCC Executive Secretary
Ethical Business is your lens into climate justice, green finance, and Africa’s role in building a fairer future.
