Baku – The usual tension in the climate negotiations at the cost of financing will be repeated at COP29 while the morale of poor countries plummets; They are the great victims of the climate collapse for which they are not responsible and lack resources to deal with it. How to compensate them? What is the loss and damage fund?
From terribly long and suffocating heat waves, to hurricanes, droughts accompanied by disastrous floods due to torrential rains are some of the evidence of the climate change which endangers the survival of the world and is aggravated by increasingly high temperatures.
Natural disasters due to global warming are proliferating on the planet, not only in the global south, but also in the developed world, as is the case of the devastating floods these days in Spainafter the destructive impact of two storms in a row, with more than 200 deaths.
Africa asks for climate help
Countries in the South, such as those in Africa and other developing territories, are added to the drama of natural disasters, the lack of resources to face them or at least protect themselves and avoid the worst effects of the climate on their people and their battered environments. life.
In fact, Africa is crying out to the world for economic help; The calls for help are constant from the delegates of governments of African countries meeting these days, along with leaders from the rest of the world, at the COP29 climate summit being held in the capital of Azerbaijan.
Other developing territories, such as the so-called small island states, are desperate due to the threat of being submerged due to the rise in sea level due to the melting of the poles. Barbados in the Caribbean or Samoa and Vanuatu, in the Pacific, among many others, demand urgent help.
According to data from social organizations, in the Pacific alone, climate disasters increased by an average of 700 percent in the last decade compared to the previous one.
What is the loss and damage fund?
Within this context of climate vulnerabilities is where the so-called loss and damage fund is framed, a mechanism designed to mobilize financial flows to the poorest countries from the wealthy nations of the global north.
Ahead of the current COP29, countries made significant progress on the loss and damage fund at COP27 in Egypt; Subsequently, COP28 in the United Arab Emirates managed to establish and operationalize the fund.
This year, the COP29 presidency has expressed progress to lay the foundations for financial disbursement starting next year.
The contributions will have direct effects on the population, to improve people’s lives, rebuild houses, save lives, guarantee livelihoods, the COP29 presidency has indicated.
A totally insufficient financial commitment
The initial capitalization available to the fund is $700 million, with voluntary contributions from countries, although the annual damage caused by climate disasters in poor countries is valued at billions of dollars, experts warn. It would come into force in 2025.
The delimitation of the fund’s donor countries still requires ironing out rough edges; Developed countries ask China to be part of the bloc of contributing countries given its high level of development in recent years.
The impact of the disbursement on the beneficiary country is another of the issues on the table pending to be outlined so that the recipients are not drowned with greater debts. Poor countries therefore ask for subsidies instead of credits.
Other aspects that remain to be addressed include identifying the developing countries with the most serious climate impacts and defining the destination of the funds according to the greatest needs.
There are also differences on how contributions should be distributed, whether based on mitigation or adaptation actions. It will also have to be decided whether the resources will be used to finance damages that have already occurred or leave them for future losses.
New economic paradigm for the climate
Added to these issues is a climate scenario that requires radically changing the traditional rules of the game for the industrial development of countries and increasing investments in renewable energy and innovation, with a new economic paradigm that implies added investments for the countries.
And in the incipient awakening of the economic development of the southern countries, these territories will have to put aside the fossil fuels that, on the contrary, the rest of the world has abused for their industrialization. Rich countries have been fuming for decades to grow, but poor nations will not be able to do so.