Joy Reyes
Despite headways made during COP28 with regard to Loss and Damage, including the establishment of the Loss and Damage Fund and the consensus to have the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the UNOPS host the secretariat of the Santiago Network, progress has since slowed down. In SB60 in Bonn this year, the work has shifted back to conversations, which, while useful, are nowhere near sufficient to meet the urgent needs of developing countries and vulnerable communities experiencing the harshest impacts of the climate crisis.
In fact, while conversations were being had in the hallowed halls of the UNFCCC buildings, countries everywhere have been facing droughts, record-breaking temperature levels, floods, and losses to lives and livelihoods. Towards the end of the SBs, Sudan was reporting deadly heatwaves, and Kenya was in the midst of trying to recover from devastating floods. Hardly the “progress” touted by developed countries in the climate talks.
Updates from the first half of 2024
This is not to say, however, that there have been no movements in climate action; rather that the pace has been inadequate to meet urgent needs. Still, it matters to see and appreciate progress where it is found, celebrate successes, mourn losses, and stand in solidarity with each other in the goal to envision a climate-just world.
The Glasgow Dialogue, for instance, concluded this year after a three-part series. While not the funding required by developing countries when it was first proposed, it was still a good opportunity for Parties and non-Party stakeholders to discuss what is needed when it comes to the loss and damage finance architecture. The discussion this year focused on coordination and coherence as well as gaps that are still not being highlighted in the loss and damage talks, including slow-onset events and non-economic losses and damage, which includes human mobility and displacement.
An agreement was also reached regarding the Terms of Reference for the 2024 review of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with climate change impacts.
With regard to the Fund itself, the World Bank had already confirmed it will be the interim host of the Loss and Damage Fund. It is to be noted, quite alarmingly, that as of writing, no new pledges have been made to the Fund: it still stands at around 700 million USD, a number so little as to be infinitesimal when taken within the context of the needs of developing countries. By way of analogy, Typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan), a category 5 typhoon that ravaged the country more than a decade ago, had for its damages around 2.2 billion USD. Clearly, therefore, the amount currently pledged was nowhere near sufficient to meet the needs of one category 5 typhoon more than a decade ago, and it will be nowhere near enough to meet the needs now. It will definitely not be adequate to meet the cumulative impacts of the climate crisis.
The Board of the Loss and Damage Fund will be having its second meeting from the 9th to the 12th of July in Incheon, Republic of Korea. The Board then will have to ensure that they continue to make meaningful progress on the efforts towards the full operationalization of the Fund in the speed needed to meet demands.
Finally, we come to climate finance. The negotiations on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) which needs to be agreed on in COP29 at Baku, Azerbaijan, has not just been slow, but incredibly divisive. The objective of the goal is to set a new amount that developed countries have to give developing countries in order to help the latter achieve their climate action plans, cognizant of the fact that the money currently pledged has been insufficient at best. The original pledge of 100 billion USD per year has not been met (the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development or OECD said that the 100 billion was “materially achieved” in 2022, but much of these were in loans and not in forms that developing countries need), and now the needs are much greater.
Developing countries have emphasized that the discussion should focus on quantum (how much the amount should be) and timeline, but no agreement has been made just yet. Developing countries have also forwarded estimates that range from 1.1 to 1.3 trillion USD per year as the amount that they need, but developed countries have not committed to anything. The United States, however, have said that it will mobilize from a “floor” of 100 billion USD, which, again, is not enough. Significant work and progress needs to be done both in the lead-up to and during COP29 if countries are to ensure that climate finance is mobilized and utilized. There also needs to be an agreement on whether, crucially, loss and damage should be a sub-goal of the NCQG.
Cannot take a backseat
This year’s COP will be a climate finance COP, and while all eyes will be on the NCQG, loss and damage still needs to be made front and center of the discussions. The establishment of the Fund cannot be used to justify inaction and dwindling pledges as losses and damages will continue to be felt everywhere unless urgent and immediate action is made. Now the conversation needs to shift from the Fund itself to how the Fund can be utilized in a way that is rights-based, gender-responsive, and just. There has to be discussions on how the Fund will be replenished, as well as on how it will be accessed. Moreover, there needs to be genuine discussions on non-economic loss and damage, which has so far not been at the forefront of the climate discussions, despite the urgency to meet and respond to them. In all of these discourses, it matters so strongly that different, oft-unheard voices are centered and amplified, including, but not limited to, women, children and youth, indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, laborers, and peasants, who are first to feel the brunt of the climate crisis and are most vulnerable to its effects.
Loss and damage will have to be a mainstay in the discussions, separate from, but in conjunction with, the other pillars of climate action. The work has to be scaled-up, and in a manner that is both complementary and synchronous: the work on adaptation, mitigation, climate finance, loss and damage, just transition, and climate empowerment need to all come together, and ensure that no one is left behind. This is the only way we can have a fighting chance to meet the 1.5 goal, and ensure that future generations will inherit a world that is not up in ashes.
Atty. Jameela Joy M. Reyes is a Technical Advisor at the Klima Center of Manila Observatory. She works on the intersections of loss and damage, human rights, and climate and energy justice. She is currently doing her MSc in Global Environment, Politics and Society at the University of Edinburgh.
This is part of Klima Center’s SB 60 thought-leadership series on the climate change workstreams of Global Stocktake, Mitigation, Loss and Damage, Just Transition, and Action for Climate Empowerment.