A matter of life or death: the countries most vulnerable to climate change ask the developed countries for more financing at COP26

Floods, fires, rising sea levels, cyclones and countless bodies lost in the ocean and under the ground: a reality that many nations suffering from the effects of climate change are already experiencing. With them begins the second week of the Climate Conference under the theme “Adaptation, loss and damage”. The message is for developed countries: they must keep their promise of funding and support to small states that are already losing everything.

“From the ocean came life, peace and our comfort, a world unknown to most but which was one for my people…

Someday we will remember a time when our homes stood proud and tall, because today they no longer stand. That place is now occupied by the ocean.”

The eighth day of the Climate Conference, COP26, started with a poem recited by an activist from Papua New Guinea. His words echoed in a meeting room in the blue zone.

“We will never know when the tide has risen and swallowed our homes. Our cultures, our languages and our traditions will be washed away by the ocean. When they say ‘by 2030 or 2050,’ how can they set those nine to 29 year timeframes when my people has shown that we have to act now, that there is no time to waste?” he said, explaining that the ocean that once gave life to his people has now become his executioner.

I wasn’t alone. A few meters away, in another room, a young woman and survivor of the super typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines exactly eight years ago today, had a message for the world.

“They stopped counting when the death toll reached 6,000, but there are still 1,600 bodies missing. Today we continue to call for justice for our friends and family who lost their lives to climate disasters. Young Filipinos are fighting for a future that is not riddled with anxiety and fear that another Haiyan could come at any moment and take away the lives and dreams of our loved ones. We do not deserve to live in fear,” he said.

For her, the COP26 must be the space to defend the “loss and damage program”.

“Exactly eight years ago today Haiyan drastically changed the lives of Filipinos, the effects of climate change are getting worse. They should not be waiting for justice to be done,” he said, adding that companies and other carbon emitters they should be responsible.

Fighting for loss and damage

The term ‘loss and damage’ is included in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and is used to refer to the damage that climate change, caused by humans, is causing.

However, the proper answer to this question has been the subject of dispute since the adoption of the Convention. Establishing liability and compensation for loss and damage has been a long-standing goal in the negotiations for the vulnerable and developing countries of the Alliance of Small Island States and the Group of Least Developed Countries. But rich countries have resisted discussing the issue over the years.

“Six years after the Paris Agreement, which has its own article on loss and damage, small countries still have to fight to have a loss and damage agenda item at the COP,” said a representative of the NGO Climate International. during a press conference.

As for the other big topic of the day, adaptation, it is also linked to financing. Leaders of Small Island Developing States made it clear that last week’s commitments on forests, agriculture, private finance and other issues are insufficient.

“We welcome the new commitments made last week, but with all due respect, to be honest, I can’t be too excited about them (…) Several new promises are missing, and others come with insufficient commitments that have only managed to put up obstacles on the wrong track of 1.5 degrees of warming,” said Frank Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji.

a broken promise

Last week’s announcement that the promise of $100 billion a year for climate finance in developing countries would be delayed again was the big taboo subject of the Conference, but many leaders of these countries put it on the table .

“Developed nations are failing us, they are the ones that have the resources and technology to make a difference, and yet they have left the potential of clean energy and adaptation off the table by not fulfilling the promise of delivering 100,000 million for two consecutive years… We, the most vulnerable, are being told to suck it up and wait until 2023,” added Bainimarama.

The Prime Minister recalled that since the signing of the Paris Agreement, thirteen cyclones have hit Fiji, and stated that there should be no delay in building resilience. For this you need money “plain and simple”.

“I stand ready, along with every single Fijian, to do whatever it takes to secure our food chain and ensure the growth of our island economy. We have solutions and we are always ready to share our experience,” he stressed, telling delegates that they have also already offered refuge to the inhabitants of the island nations of Kiribati and Tuvalu in case their homes are the first to disappear.

Minister Simon Stiell of Grenada also commented that the promises made last week must be translated into meaningful action on the ground.

“For us, in the islands, climate change is not something abstract. It is real and is lived every day, and if mitigation is a marathon that takes us to that 1.5 goal, adaptation is the sprint while we fight against the effects and the urgency of protecting life and livelihoods,” he stressed.

For her part, Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, climate envoy of the Marshall Islands, said that science is beginning to reveal that adaptation measures are going to cost much more than 100,000 million dollars a year.

“We are talking about several billion dollars to implement our national adaptation plans. We have received preliminary studies that show us estimates of tens of billions for land reclamation, elevation of parts of our land and internal migration. When Let’s negotiate a new funding target for 2025, it must be based on science. The first target was an estimate,” he explained.

Former President Obama in Support of Small Island States

To the surprise of some COP26 attendees, former President Barack Obama attended the meeting with representatives of the island states.

Born and raised in Hawaii, he called himself an “island boy” and said the world is not doing enough for the islands, which are more threatened than ever.

“This is not something that is 10, 20 or 30 years away, but it is now, and we have to act now,” he said.

He invited delegates to move forward by joining forces by quoting an old Hawaiian saying: “If you want to paddle a canoe, you had better all paddle in the same direction at the same time. That’s the only way you can move forward. That’s the kind of spirit that needed to move forward,” he added.

Later, Obama spoke at the plenary session of COP26, where he pledged to drive climate action as a private citizen and made it clear that keeping temperatures below 1.5C is going to be “difficult”.

“International cooperation has always been difficult, but it’s made more difficult by the disinformation and propaganda coming out of social media these days … Getting people to work together on a global scale takes time, and that’s a time we don’t have (…) If we work hard enough for long enough, those partial victories add up,” he argued.

He also encouraged young people to talk to their families about climate change.

“Our planet has been wounded by our actions, those wounds will not heal today or tomorrow,[pero] I believe we can secure a better future. We have to do it,” he said.

Balance of the negotiations

While all this was happening, the COP26 presidency held an event on Monday to take stock of the progress of the ongoing negotiations. Naturally, the representatives of the developing countries made a strong call for the pending items on the agenda to be resolved, emphasizing the issue of financing.

They also said that the plethora of commitments announced last week are welcome, but it remains to be seen if action is taken.

“A COP without concrete financing cannot be described as successful,” said Guinea’s negotiating minister, representing the G77 countries and China.

“We are disappointed that developed countries are not willing to discuss financing issues,” and accused them of making some “empty promises.”

Antigua and Barbuda, on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States, addressed the failure of the $100 billion in climate finance to be delivered by developed countries, as well as the uncertainty over adaptation finance, saying which should be much more ambitious.

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, don’t make a sound. The NDC event took place briefly late at night in a small room with a musical interlude. Colleagues, we weren’t there to listen to it. The report reveals a huge gap in ambition, we need stronger national plans for 2030 with concrete implementation plans,” the minister said, noting that the report indicates there will be a 13% increase in emissions, rather than reduce the 45% needed to curb global warming.

Bhutan, representing the group of least developed countries, said that the public statements of the countries often differ from what is heard and from the negotiations.

“We come to Glasgow with great expectations, we need firm commitments to guarantee the survival of the billion people who live in the least developed countries in the future. There are still key points in the negotiations that we must resolve this week,” he stressed.

The representative was referring to the issues of transparency, carbon markets, the Paris regulation, as well as financing, which the COP26 presidency announced will be discussed in this last week of negotiations.

Matter of life or death

For Bernard Ewekia, a student who traveled to Glasgow from the Pacific islands of Tuvalu, words are not enough.

“There are already five islands around Tuvalu that have disappeared, and I want world leaders to commit, but also to act now before my country disappears completely,” he told UN News at his country’s pavilion, which this year It has a group of polar bears and penguins, both species in danger of extinction due to climate change.

For the poet from Papua New Guinea, the real solutions are found within the communities, so supporting them is essential for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

“Eliminate deadlines, my people are the solution, this is our land and we have the connections, let’s work together, let our story be told. Trust us to lead our solutions locally and act now,” he said.

Source: United Nations