As envoys from around the world gather in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for the 27th annual UN climate change conference, a demand from vulnerable countries that has existed since the first conference will finally take center stage .
Countries in the Global South will demand compensation for the losses and damages they are already suffering as the climate crisis heats up, and will continue to suffer in an increasingly uncertain future.
At the heart of the demand is the fact that the countries most vulnerable to climate change are the least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that have caused the problem.
LOOK | Will rich nations pay for global climate disasters?
Will rich nations pay for global climate disasters?
Vulnerable countries are bearing the brunt of climate change, even though they are not driving it. At COP27, leaders of the Global South will tell rich nations, the world’s highest emitters of greenhouse gases, that it’s time to pay for the damages.
“This is a clear injustice, because it is obviously unfair that particularly vulnerable countries like ours have to figure out our own solutions, if they are basically limited to no support at all,” said Michai Robertson, the Alliance’s lead negotiator on climate finance. of Petites. Island States (AOSIS).
This alliance, which began in 1990 to represent the interests of 39 vulnerable and low-income countries, is pushing for loss and damage to be on the agenda this year. They want compensation negotiations to begin now and a funding mechanism to be finalized within the next year.
Climate injustice on the agenda
Robertson is from Antigua and Barbuda, one of the island countries most at risk of mass loss from climate change. In 2017, Hurricane Irma forced the evacuation of all 1,600 residents of Barbuda and destroyed most of the buildings on the island.
Climate change will make these disasters more frequent. Island countries face devastation from storms and floods, and an existential threat from rising sea levels that can engulf entire communities.
At the same time, island countries’ greenhouse gas emissions are tiny compared to the resource-based, highly industrialized economies of rich nations, and their budgets cannot afford all the recovery and reconstruction that future disasters will require. .
“In developed countries, you have your treasures to lean on,” Robertson said. “We don’t have that safety net. … We need support to build that safety net and cushion when all these things happen, to address these things once they happen.”
A view of a COP27 poster on the road leading to the conference area in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the city hosting the annual UN summit that begins on Sunday. (Sheasha said/Reuters)
AOSIS is calling for a “fit-for-purpose multilateral fund” to be created under the UN climate change convention, with money not only going to vulnerable countries, but also directly to communities most affected by climate change. No dollar figure has been proposed.
How can climate repairs work?
In an interview en route to COP27, Canada’s ambassador for climate change said Canada supports adding loss and damage to the conference’s agenda.
“Much more needs to be done to prevent, minimize and address loss and damage in developing countries, and more funding will be needed,” said Catherine Stewart.
Stewart said the details of loss and damage funding will have to be negotiated and could come from many different sources of money and support.
Outside the UN Conference of the Parties (COP) process, Germany has proposed a program called Global Shield that would lead the G7 group of industrialized nations to address some of these losses. Global Shield will help vulnerable countries and communities obtain insurance to help rebuild and recover from climate disasters.
Young indigenous Filipinos, students and environmental activists participate in the global climate strike in Metro Manila in this September 20, 2019 file photo. (Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)
But Ahmed El Droubi, Greenpeace’s regional campaigns manager for the Middle East and North Africa, says the proposals do not match the scale of support that will be needed.
“There is concern that this system benefits insurance company executives more than communities in the Global South,” he said.
El Droubi says that having COP27 in Egypt, an “African COP”, is “an opportunity for the countries of the Global South to be united and demand climate justice”.
What has been committed so far?
Canada has played a leading role in global climate finance to help developing countries mitigate climate change by reducing their emissions and adapting to more extreme weather. In 2009, rich countries pledged to reach a climate finance target of US$100 billion by 2020.
This goal has not been achieved.
According to the latest estimates, rich countries got about US$83 billion by 2020. But Canada and Germany have led a diplomatic effort to wrestle with rich countries to reach US$100 billion, which they estimate will happen by 2023 .
However, this money is not specifically for loss and damage, which includes economic and non-economic losses that cannot be avoided through adaptation.
“We need a system. Right now, the UN doesn’t have a system to help countries around the world apply, get funding immediately after climate disasters,” said Eddy Pérez, manager of climate diplomacy international advocacy group Climate Action Network Canada.
Young Ugandan environmental activists hold signs with messages related to climate change addressed to the Ugandan government and other world leaders at Kampala International University as part of the Fridays for Future global climate strike movement on March 19, 2021. (Badru Katumba/AFP via Getty Images )
Recent disasters highlight the losses
The need for such a system was highlighted during the devastating floods in Pakistan caused by unusually heavy monsoon rains. A study by the World Weather Attribution Initiative found that the increase in rainfall was likely caused by climate change.
The floods disrupted the lives of 33 million people and submerged a third of the entire country. Economic losses are estimated at more than US$33 billion. The entire annual budget of the government of Pakistan is US$ 43 billion
According to the latest report on climate change impacts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, even limiting global warming to 1.5C in the short term, which is a goal of the international Paris Agreement, will not eliminate all expected losses and damage to humans and ecosystems.
Pakistan’s geography was transformed after much of the country was hit by heavy rains and widespread flooding earlier this year. Scientific analysis has found that climate change likely helped drive the disaster. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)
“It’s just a stark reminder that you can have today, but you can’t have tomorrow, for us,” said Ineza Grace, an activist and loss and damage researcher and member of Rwanda’s delegation to COP27.
“And it’s really, really scary.”
Grace said that while losses and damages are being negotiated, rich countries must let the Global South take the lead and come up with solutions.
“What we were demanding is, really, from the global north, to unlearn everything they think we need and listen to what we know we need,” he said.