The following remarks were delivered by IMAL co-founder Iskander Erzini Vernoit, as a panelist for the event on civil society and the energy transition as part of the programme of the Annual Meetings of the EBRD, taking place in Marrakech in 2022.
I'll address myself, I think, in the first instance to the role of civil society in the energy transition, and then hope to get to some of the most substantive matters around energy in the discussion. But I want to start by way of introduction, by recalling, indeed, the fact that the last time I was here was in this building was in the pre-sessional preparations for COP22 in 2016.
And then, I was in government, so I was not in the civil society role. But here I am on the other side of the table. And I think it's interesting to observe that of the different NGO representatives here at least, on the panel, physically present, the three of us coming from think-tank backgrounds also have worked in our respective governments and yet have chosen to work in civil society. And I think there's an important question to ask there of, of why why we've we've chosen to do that.
And by way of explanation in that regard, I want to take us back even further in time, still remaining in this building, but going back over 20 years... Back to the early 2000s, when COP7 was held, as many people in this room might know, in Marrakech, what not everyone in this room might know is that it was held actually in this very building. And that speaks to the fact that the international climate processes have grown massively. There's no way you could fit a COP inside a building like this these days, but it gives you, I think, reason, all of us, cause to pause and reflect—because it's been 20 years.
It was COP7... we're now approaching COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh this year in Egypt, and I think civil society has a fundamental role to play in asking ourselves big picture questions like "What have we achieved in the past 20 years? And is it sufficient?" And I think clearly from the standpoint of the United Nations international climate process, the answer is no.
The objective that the UN process sets is to avoid dangerous runaway climate change in the Earth system. And currently, per the latest reports from the IPCC, we're on track as well for a trajectory of over two degrees Celsius.
And the IPCC also tells us that for this part of the world, in particular, as climate change hotspot, that's going to mean a increase in the frequency and a doubling in the duration of droughts in North Africa and the Sahel.
So I think as civil society globally, but also locally, we have to bear in mind these existential risks, that this energy transition is nothing that we can prevaricate around. And I think quite frankly, the lack of progress that we've seen in the past 20 years, does represent something of a strategic and moral failure. I think we have to agree.
So I think the civil society has an important role to play in exercising both a moral and a strategic voice. But there's also a third voice that I think it can exercise, and I'll say a few words. on that. And that's the technical voice. And I think that that's obviously well represented on this panel with civil society representatives that have done a lot of technical work, and I think technical work is hugely important.
I've been witness to various public policy processes where the right technical research at the right time really transforms outcomes—even in, you know, well resourced government and MDB processes that you'd think were doing just fine in terms of technical capacity. But I think it's particularly important in the part of the world like North Africa, where we don't have the immense government capacities that that you might have in London in terms of, you know, government analytical capabilities and so on. So it becomes particularly important in that context.
And particularly important in the context of major infrastructure finance, when we're looking for things like risks and opportunities that may be financial in nature, maybe related to energy maybe to technology, climate, or socio-environmental—and civil society, I think has a fundamental role to play there... And I think that it's especially important as folks have have talked about over the past few days, when you look at a part of the world like this, where there's a lot of fiscal vulnerabilities. Quite frankly, you know, we can't be we can't afford to make misguided infrastructure decisions that overlook some of the financial risks associated with with some of these choices that we're talking about in the energy transition...
And also the opportunity space, which is massive, as we all know, and the role of civil society in in sort of pressing and asking why it is that we're not pursuing all of these great opportunities out there, and what can be done—so a strategic moral and technical voice, I think that's important for civil society.
And so, just to wrap up, I think, where I would leave it is to say that I think that you know, if we look at the overall framing for this event, the Annual Meetings, around responding to challenges in turbulent times, I think we can do so successfully and in a just way, when we engage civil society in all of its diversity.
And to just explain what I mean by that, the one thing that has to be mentioned is that civil society has to be engaged in a way that's reflective of society:
We have to avoid things like male dominated panels, especially in this day and age of 2022. I had to mention that, but especially when we have so much talent in the region, female talent in the way of expertise in so many areas that are germane to civil society in the energy transition...
Diversity of civil society—just to acknowledge that we're all think tanks, and we need to make sure that the grassroots and other campaigning NGOs are in the room as well.
And then last but not least, geographic diversity, we have to ensure that the civil society community from the global south is fully represented.
Thank you.