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National Assembly House Chairperson for Committees, Oversight & ICT, Mr Cedric Frolick, has called for the reform of multilateral lending institutions and theirlending policies to increase access to finances to address the climate crisis.

Mr Frolick leads SA Parliamentary delegation attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP27) currently taking place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, until 18 November. He was addressing the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting for legislators yesterday organized jointly with the Egyptian House of Representatives in Sharma El-Sheik

“We need to reform multilateral lending institutions and their lending policies. As things stand the current policies have the potential to bind developing countries on the African continent and elsewhere into long term loans that will result in a debt trap for future generations,” said Mr Frolick, while addressing delegates from more than 150 countries attending themeeting.

He called on fellow MPs from developed countries to hold their Executives accountable to honour their commitments made at previous COP conferences. As an example, he emphasized that the current financial package of $ 8.5bn from the US, EU, UK, France and Germany to South Africa consist of 97% loans and only 3% grants. “This places multilateral support out of reach for most developing countries due to its onerous costs and conditionalities. It will result in making the attainment of the Paris Agreement very difficult and unimplementable,” said Mr Frolick.

The meeting adopted an outcome document that emphasizes the need for concrete action by governments and Parliaments around the world to address the urgency of the climate crisis. Discussions focused, amongst others, on climate action and sustainable development, prioritizing accountability for climate justice and Parliaments’ role in sustainably powering our future. 

In his closing address the Secretary-General of the IPU, Mr. Martin Chungong, made reference to House Chairperson Frolick’s input that questioned the speed at which developed countries pass emergency budgets for war but are reluctant to meet their financial commitments to combat climate change.

Issued by the Parliamentary Communication Services on behalf of the Delegation attending the IPU meeting in Egypt