A multilingual tome born of global demand
Published in Paris by Tropiques Littéraires and immediately released in French, English, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese, “Green Ledger” spans 380 densely documented pages. Michel Innocent Peya—an economist by training who has become one of Central Africa’s most prolific climate writers—explains that participants at successive COPs frequently asked for accessible versions of his previous essays. The present volume, he notes, “aims to leave no reader linguistically stranded while the planet’s thermometer keeps rising.” Such editorial choice underscores both the universal scope of the climate emergency and Congo-Brazzaville’s desire to speak to a plural audience.
Thirty years of COPs under the microscope
The first section lays out a forensic audit of the 29 Conferences of the Parties convened between Berlin 1995 and Baku 2025. Peya cross-references official UNFCCC communiqués with academic literature to measure progress on carbon pricing, technology transfer and adaptation finance. While acknowledging milestones such as the Paris Agreement and the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund, he laments the “geopolitical paralysis” that has stalled the fulfilment of the USD 100 billion annual pledge by developed economies.
In a pointed passage he writes: “Major emitters and their leaders must be publicly confronted with their global responsibilities. Smaller nations must also be heard—something a G-20 conclave alone could never guarantee.” The recurring face-to-face ritual, he argues, is what lends the COP format its democratic legitimacy, however cumbersome the negotiations may appear.
From conferences to concrete commitments
Beyond recounting debates, Peya investigates the operational aftermath of each summit: implementation timetables, nationally determined contributions, and the rise of voluntary carbon markets inaugurated in Dubai and Baku. He recognises that the visibility generated by COPs has spurred civic mobilisation and private-sector experimentation, yet he warns against the temptation to replace action with rhetoric. “Delays and disinformation are dangerous luxuries in an age of cascading heatwaves and floods,” he writes, urging governments to convert declaratory politics into legally enforceable policies.
A Congolese eco-visionary at the forefront
Threaded through the narrative is the influence of President Denis Sassou Nguesso, portrayed as an “eco-visionary leader” whose advocacy for tropical forests dates back to the creation of Congo’s National Tree Day in 1984. Peya documents how Brazzaville leveraged the country’s custodianship of the Congo Basin—the world’s second-largest rainforest—to champion the UN Decade of Afforestation and Reforestation 2027-2036, adopted in April 2025 by 155 votes at the General Assembly.
For the author, this diplomatic success illustrates the power of South-South leadership. Congo’s initiative is expected to accelerate green jobs in planting and forest stewardship while anchoring climate resilience in community livelihoods.
Anticipating COP30 Brazil and the afforestation decade
The second half of “Green Ledger” pivots toward the road to Belém, where COP30 will convene in 2026. Peya identifies three litmus tests: the alignment of financial flows with the 1.5 °C trajectory, credible pathways for nature-based solutions, and bridging the digital divide in climate data. He advocates stronger synergies between Amazonian and Congo Basin research centres, contending that “forest nations can no longer negotiate in silos if they wish to shift the centre of gravity of global climate governance.”
He further argues that the Afforestation Decade offers a concrete metric by which COP30 delegations can be judged. By 2027, signatory states will be expected to table nationally costed reforestation plans, integrating biodiversity safeguards and community ownership.
À retenir
“Green Ledger” is at once a historical chronicle, a diplomatic briefing and a manifesto for planetary stewardship. Its publication affirms Congo-Brazzaville’s commitment to multilateralism while reminding industrialised states that ecological ambition must be matched by predictable financing.
Le point juridique/éco
Peya’s insistence on enforceable climate obligations resonates with ongoing debates on environmental justiciability. Several jurisdictions—from the German Constitutional Court to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights—have begun framing climate in terms of human rights and intergenerational equity. Should such jurisprudence consolidate, commitments registered at COPs could, in time, migrate from the realm of soft law to that of binding legal duty, altering the risk calculus for both governments and investors.