Climate justice arrives at COP27: “When your house has been razed, you don’t need money to regenerate wetlands”

• “This is loss and damage: irreversible climate-related devastation that cannot be mitigated or adapted,” warns Madeleine Diouf Sarr in Nature
• Madeleine Diouf Sarr represents the least developed countries: “When your home is destroyed by climate change, do you want to be left alone?”
• On the need for economic aid for those most affected by climate disasters: “Talking does not feed the hungry or shelter the homeless”

“This year, thousands of people died and millions lost their homes in devastating floods in Bangladesh, Sudan and Pakistan. In East Africa, 50 million people are suffering from famine caused by the worst drought in 40 years. Worldwide, at least half of the 59 million internal migrants in 2021 were displaced by the effects of climate change, according to the United Nations. This is loss and damage: irreversible climate-related devastation that cannot be mitigated or adapted. Dealing with this is pushing developing countries to become increasingly indebted and their economies on the verge of collapse.”

So begins the article signed in the journal Nature by Madeleine Diouf Sarr, president of the Group of Least Developed Countries (LDC) on Climate Change. And as such, he recalls that it represents “46 countries, which are home to almost one billion people.” The article was published a few days ago, and she announced that she would be at the COP27 held in Egypt from Sunday. “I will be among those calling on governments to establish a loss and damage fund for developing countries during COP27. It is estimated that between $290 billion and $580 billion a year will be needed by 2030.”

The first affected and the least prepared

Losses and damages, indeed, will be key in the COP27 negotiations, after many years struggling to get on the official agenda of these climate change summits. For the first time, financing to address the loss and damage caused by the climate crisis in the least developed countries, which are the most vulnerable, is on the table at the COP. This is what is called “climate justice”.

A few days ago, Sarr declared that COP27 should “capture the voice and needs of the most vulnerable nations and deliver climate justice.” The 46 countries she represents are negotiating as a bloc at the UN summit.

And everything indicates that, in this summit, they will be more heard than in others.

But organizations such as Greenpeace warn of the need not to postpone agreements on this issue any longer. “While in many ways this is a breakthrough, the suggestion that countries would need until 2024 to agree on a way to cover losses seems too far from reality, given the devastating climate impacts experienced this year.”

Greenpeace alludes to the same examples as Madeleine Diouf Sarr. “The destruction caused by the floods in Pakistan, the drought in Somalia, the US and the Mediterranean, and the heat waves that have caused thousands of deaths in Europe and India, have changed the policy around this issue,” say environmentalists.

And the data speaks for itself: “The African Development Bank reported in September that the continent is losing between 5% and 15% of its growth in GDP per capita each year due to climate change,” warns Sarr. “The people and communities I represent are the least responsible for carbon dioxide emissions; Together, they contributed just 1.1% of global emissions in 2019. That’s less than half of the emissions from cars and trucks in the United States. We are the first and most affected by climate change and we are the least equipped to respond,” he recalls.

Talking does not feed or harbor

Sarr is Head of the Climate Change Division at Senegal’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development. Trained as a biologist and environmental engineer, she has decades of experience in UN climate change negotiations. And in his article prior to the summit, he insists: “Those most responsible for global warming also have the greatest capacity to act. Although the richest 10% of the world’s people produce 50% of emissions, they claim 52% of the world’s wealth; The poorest 50% contribute about 10% of global emissions and receive about 8% of global revenues. Negotiators like me have been demanding action for 30 years. But where is the concrete support for the people and communities most affected?”

Last year, at COP26 in Glasgow, low- and middle-income countries jointly proposed a Loss and Damage Financing Fund. The rich countries rejected it and offered a three-year ‘dialogue’, until 2024, to which Greenpeace alluded. “Talking does not feed the hungry or shelter the homeless,” warns the Senegalese, who could not be clearer when explaining the urgent need for funding.

“Why create a new fund to support climate disasters? Because when your house has been razed to the ground, you need a place to sleep and something to eat, not money earmarked for wetland regeneration,” he explains. Above all, remember, because the effects of climate change are already occurring, faster than even predicted by the IPCC.

What do you ask of COP27?

And he points to an “irony: global subsidies for fossil fuels in 2021 reached 697,000 million dollars. That could pay for the climate-related economic losses suffered by the most vulnerable countries between 2000 and 2019, and they would still have $170 billion left in profits.”

“What do I want to leave COP27 with?” he asks. First, a plan for the commitment made in Glasgow to at least double adaptation funding by 2025 through a system of public subsidies. Secondly, the establishment of a loss and damage financing facility with an equitable governing body, disbursing new funds.”

Sarr points out that, “ultimately, it is up to each country how to secure the necessary funding to support the most vulnerable.” But he warns: “The fund must have a clear way of identifying funding needs and a fast track for emergencies. When your home is destroyed by climate change, do you want to be left alone?”

Source: Nius Diario