“COP27 must commit to a finance facility on Loss and Damage”
3 May 2022
| Minister reaffirms Scotland government’s commitment to keep Loss and Damage high on the political agenda this year and help build support for separate and additional funding to address Loss and Damage 03 May 2022: Speakers at a briefing today on the Glasgow Dialogue on Loss and Damage, organised by Climate Action Network International, Stamp Out Poverty and the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, highlighted the importance of ensuring that the dialogue results in a concrete finance facility for Loss and Damage and that Loss and Damage remains at the centre of the climate agenda in the run up to United Nations climate conference -COP27- taking place in Egypt this November. Recalling the massive political momentum built by civil society in 2021 ahead of the Glasgow COP26, the speakers noted that climate impacts, from floods, food insecurity, heatwaves and slow onset events like sea-level rise, are increasing in intensity and frequency. This only reaffirms that those most impacted by unavoidable climate catastrophes and who are at the limits of adaptation urgently need access to specific and additional funding to cope with climate damages. The most recent IPCC reports published this year in February and April have added to the existing science explaining how communities, particularly in developing countries and small island states, are least equipped to cope and increasingly face compounding crises of poverty, vulnerability and climate impacts. Governments must come together to renew efforts to ensure that alongside mitigation and adaptation, the third pillar of the Paris Agreement on Loss and Damage results in concrete steps towards a finance facility that will serve those on the frontlines of the climate crisis. The most recent IPCC reports published this year, in February and April, have added to the existing science explaining how communities, particularly in developing countries and small island states, are least Last year, COP26 failed to deliver an outcome on a finance facility for Loss and Damage and instead promised a ‘Glasgow Dialogue’. It is now time to make this dialogue meaningful and not just another talk-shop. Quotes from the speakers: “Loss and Damage finance is fundamentally a matter of climate justice. Ahead of the COP26 last year, the G7 failed to deliver on their decade long finance promises to provide $100bn by 2020 and Loss and Damage was not part of the official agenda for COP26. Therefore civil society made Loss and Damage the agenda for COP26 to the point that the largest bloc of developing countries, representing more than half the world’s populations, called for a finance facility on Loss and Damage. This was blocked by rich polluting countries. This year, in 2022, we are committed to fighting to make a finance facility for Loss and Damage a reality at COP27.” – Tasneem Essop, Executive Director, Climate Action Network International “It is a profound injustice that those who are being worst affected by climate change have done so little to cause this crisis. The voices of those disproportionately impacted- youth, women, communities in the global South are so infrequently heard in the decision making table. The Scottish government is committed to amplify these voices least heard and thereby move this issue for finance for Loss and Damage high up the climate agenda to seek separate and additional funding for Loss and Damage.” – H.E. Màiri McAllan – Scotland’s Minister for Environment and Land Reform “In COP26 the developing countries demanded that the Glasgow Climate Pact include the announcement of a Glasgow Facility for financing loss and damage but the developed countries downgraded that to a mere Glasgow Dialogue on financing loss and damage. This dialogue needs to be initiated urgently and.culminate in a decision to create the financing facility at COP27 in November 2022. The details of the Facility can be worked out at COP28 a year later.” -Saleemul Huq, Director, International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) in Bangladesh “People in my country and region have done the least to create the climate crisis but we are already suffering the worst impacts. It’s morally bankrupt to just keep talking about loss and damage. We need real money on the table to help communities who are losing livelihoods — and lives.” – Vanessa Nakate, Youth Climate Activist & Founder Rise Up, Uganda “Loss and damage is already a reality, most existentially for vulnerable developing countries and communities around the world. The Glasgow Dialogue must result in concrete outcomes that provide adequate, new and additional support for the most vulnerable people and countries in addressing loss and damage – otherwise the dialogue would fail. The key outcome should be the establishment of a L&D finance facility and its full operationalization over the course of the dialogue.” – Laura Schäfer, Senior Advisor, Climate Risk Management, Germanwatch and CAN Working Group coordinator, Climate Impacts ###### ENDS###### CONTACT Dharini Parthasarathy, Senior Global Communications Officer, Climate Action Network International, dparthasarathy@climatenetwork.org / +918826107930 CLIMATE ACTION NETWORK Climate Action Network (CAN) is a global network of over 1500 NGOs in more than 130 countries fighting the climate crisis. More information on www.climatenetwork.org |