Crypto News: Next Africa: Dashing high hopes

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Africa, along with the rest of the developing world, has high hopes for the COP29 climate summit taking place in Azerbaijan.

History shows it's likely to be disappointed.

An ambitious target of $1.3 trillion in annual climate finance (government and private) has been put forward. Yet, developed nations have only just met their 2009 pledge of $100 billion.

The military assists people affected by flooding in Maiduguri, Nigeria, on Sept. 12. Photographer: Audu Marte/AFP/Getty Images

The rightward political shift across many advanced economies means little more is likely to be forthcoming.

Donald Trump, the US president-elect, went as far as to say he plans to pull the world's No. 1 economy out of the Paris Agreement, the international climate treaty that set the benchmark to protect the planet from catastrophic warming.

China, the biggest source of emissions, is sticking to its stance that it's not obligated to pay toward the formal target because it's a developing country.

With many countries moving to the right "it's becoming more and more difficult for them to pay money, because their voter base makes it more difficult," South African Environment Minister Dion George said in an interview.

WATCH: South Africa's environment minister is interviewed on Bloomberg TV.

In a year when climate change has brought a devastating drought that swept through southern Africa and epic floods that inundated countries across the breadth of the Sahel, the continent may find it's largely on its own.

The largest economic powers need to be honest about their intentions when it comes to climate finance, George said of talks at the two-week United Nations gathering.

"You've got to work with what you have, not with what you wish you have," he said. — Antony Sguazzin

Key stories and opinion:
South Africa Says China Could Assume Climate Lead if US Exits
Countries Are Pledging Money They Don't Control at COP29
Trump Win Upends the Fight for Climate Cash at COP29
Extreme Rainfall Is Becoming More Frequent and Deadly: QuickTake
COP29 Bickers Over Money While the World Burns: Mark Gongloff

Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye will seek to consolidate his grip on power in parliamentary elections on Sunday to push through a series of reforms needed to steady the government's shaky finances. Faye succeeded Macky Sall as leader of the West African nation in March and called the snap vote six months later, after struggling to win backing for his policy agenda from a legislature that's dominated by his opponents. Campaigning has been heated, with Faye's Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko alleging their party's members had been attacked.

Posters of Faye and Sonko in Dakar, Senegal, on March 15. Photographer: Annika Hammerschlag/Bloomberg

Mali is demanding Australia's Resolute Mining pay about $160 million to resolve a tax dispute after the government detained the gold producer's chief executive. Terry Holohan and two colleagues have been held in the capital, Bamako, since last week after traveling to the city for meetings with the nation's tax and mining authorities. The detention comes as the military rulers of Africa's third-largest gold producer pressure companies to renegotiate economic terms. Trading in Resolute's shares were suspended on Thursday. Separately, the remaining UN mission in Mali will start leaving on Friday, ending an 11-year peacekeeping mission.

Deadly protests that have rocked Mozambique's economy since disputed elections last month are ratcheting up already high risks that the government will be unable to service its domestic debt, according to S&P. The ratings company also sees the metical as overvalued by as much as 40%. Mozambique's local currency debt has more than doubled since 2020 — the year after it completed a foreign bond restructuring. Meanwhile, the tuna fishing fleet at the center of a $2 billion corruption scandal that scuttled Mozambique's economy and triggered court cases across three continents is up for auction.

A protest against the election results in Maputo on Nov. 2. Photographer: Alfredo Zuniga/AFP/Getty Images

Zimbabwe says its economic fortunes are looking up, despite the nation having to contend with a crippling drought and being shunned by capital markets since a 1999 debt default. "We've learned to manage our affairs properly" and are "living within our means," Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said in a Bloomberg TV interview in Johannesburg. This year's anticipated expansion of 2% contrasts with a 7% contraction in 2019, when the southern African country also confronted a dry spell.

South Africa's rand is caught in a tug-of-war between optimists who expect economic reforms to pay off in the longer term, and pessimists selling it off as Trump's policy proposals drive the dollar higher. The pessimists are winning. Since the US election on Nov. 5, the rand has slumped against the greenback, reaching a three-month low. That's wiped out most of this year's gains, which were fueled by signs the coalition government in place since June will do what it takes to boost economic growth.

A 100-rand banknote. Photographer: Leon Sadiki/Bloomberg

Rwanda declared its outbreak of the highly virulent Marburg disease over and closed its treatment center after the last patient was discharged about a week ago. Cave-dwelling bats, which were identified as the source, will be monitored more broadly across the country and not just in the area around the capital, Kigali, where a miner contracted the disease. Separately, more than 10.3 million people caught measles globally in 2023, a 20% increase from the year before. Nearly half of the large and disruptive outbreaks occurred in Africa.

Next Africa Quiz — What bird species is under threat from an outbreak of avian flu on an island halfway between South Africa and Antarctica? Send your answers to gbell16@bloomberg.net.

Data Watch

The Democratic Republic of Congo is set to receive nearly $2.9 billion in financing over the next three years from the International Monetary Fund.
South Africa's first dollar bond sale since 2022 — for $3.5 billion — drew strong demand, signaling some confidence in the coalition government.
Nigerian inflation quickened more than expected to 33.9%, putting another interest-rate hike in play.
Tencent's top backer Prosus — owned by South Africa's Naspers — made more than $2 billion on its investment in Swiggy, the Indian food-delivery firm.

Coming Up

Nov. 16 Southern Africa Development Community Summit in Zimbabwe
Nov. 17 Senegal parliamentary elections
Nov. 18 Egypt trade balance for September
Nov. 19 Angola interest-rate decision
Nov. 20 South Africa inflation data for October & retail sales for September, Ghana producer-inflation data for October
Nov. 21 Interest-rate decisions for South Africa, Rwanda and Egypt, Kenyan President William Ruto's state-of-the-nation speech
Nov. 22 Eswatini interest-rate decision

"The market is crying out for some political and economic stability in the country."

Leo Morawiecki

Fixed income specialist at Abrdn Investments

Morawiecki was commenting on Senegal's parliamentary elections.

The taps in Zimbabwe's second-biggest city may run dry by the end of the year. Residents of Bulawayo have already had to cope without piped water for at least five-and-a-half days a week, and there's a high risk the flow may stop completely. "We are reaching a catastrophic state," David Coltart, the mayor of the city of 700,000 people, said in an interview. While the rich can resort to drilling for underground water, the poor have limited options. Bulawayo is scrambling for solutions to the crisis sparked by a combination of the worst drought in 40 years, a lack of investment and marginalization in the decades since independence because of political and ethnic tensions. A reservoir to supply the city was last built half a century ago, and of the six earmarked to supply residents today, three are too empty to be used. Work on the half-complete Gwayi-Shangani dam ground to a halt in late 2022.