With the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 28, less than a week away, Malawi’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nancy Tembo is looking ahead at the global meeting and hopes more will be done to help least developed countries like hers face the climate crisis. To do so, Tembo would like to see the loss and damage fund materialize, as well as a debt-for-nature system and an easier-to-navigate carbon market.
But as tensions continue to rise in the Middle East, Tembo is also hoping discussions will stay focused on the issues affecting the global south. Like elsewhere, Malawi has already been affected by geopolitics and external events in recent years — just as the country’s economy was starting to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia invaded Ukraine and disrupted the global supply chain, and Malawi’s GDP dropped by almost one percentage point. Then in February, Cyclone Freddy ravaged the country.
“It's like everything is ganging up against us,” Tembo told Devex at the Reykjavík Global Forum. “I wish we could wish [wars] away and parties could just talk to each other,” she said.
About the author
Stéphanie Fillion
Stéphanie Fillion is a New York-based reporter specializing in foreign affairs and human rights and a United Nations resident correspondent. Her work has been featured in outlets such as Forbes Magazine, Foreign Policy, CNN, among others. She has a master's degree in Journalism, Politics, and Global Affairs from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from McGill University. In recent years, her U.N. coverage received two U.N. Correspondent Association awards as well as a Gracie award from the Alliance for Women in Media.
