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CAMoreland signs on to Loss and Damages statement for COP25

November 11, 2019 at 1:24 am John Englart Leave a comment

Tacloban after Typhoon Haiyan

COP25 is coming up (Dec 2-13, 2019) to be held now in Madrid, Spain, and one of the main items up for negotiation is loss and damage – when the impacts of climate change go beyond what it is possible to adapt to, with a particular focus on most vulnerable countries.

This is an issue that Pacific countries, particularly Vanuatu and Timor Leste, have been very vocal on. Unsurprisingly, Australia continues to be one of the worst countries on this issue.

International NGOs, via the Jubilee Debt Campaign, have crafted a Loss and Damage Civil Society statement to be delivered to advocacy targets and placed in the media in the run-up to COP25 to help create civil society noise to exert pressure to get a best possible outcome of the review of the UN body that deals with loss and damage, the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage.

Climate Action Convenor John Englart is travelling to attend COP25 in Madrid. United Nations Climate Change Conference was initially to be held in Chile’s capital city of Santiago, but a social uprising during October has caused the Chilean Government to cancel as host. It will instead be hosted in Madrid, Spain, although still under the COP presidency of Chile.

Loss and damage statement

The under-signed organizations, recognising that the UN finds that climate disasters are now occurring at the rate of one per week and a cost of $520 billion per year, call for an end to the stalemate in the negotiations on the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) and the creation of a comprehensive financing facility, including debt relief, for developing countries experiencing such disasters.

A new fund should be financed through regular contributions from wealthy countries and other means, such as taxes on financial transactions, international air travel, and fossil fuels. Funds should be disbursed to both governments and independent agencies, especially locally-based and women-led ones that are best able to reach those affected and/or contribute to lasting recovery and resilience.

An interest-free moratorium on debt payments should become automatic for developing countries experiencing climate disasters, in order to provide immediate access to resources which are already in the hands of the authorities and thus do not have to be mobilised through lengthy pledging exercises. This should be complemented by resources from the new fund and a pre-designed framework for restructuring the entire stock of existing public external debt while allowing sufficient fiscal space for reconstruction to avert future debt crises. To be effective the scope of the debt relief must be comprehensive, covering both private and official creditors.

Without a reliable and comprehensive financing facility to ensure finance to help countries cope with climate-induced loss & damage, the most vulnerable parts of the world will sink deeper into debt and poverty every time they are hit by climate disasters they did not cause.

Organisations can sign on to the statement at the Jubilee Debt Campaign

Entry filed under: news, UNFCCC. Tags: COP25, Loss and Damage, UNFCCC.