Climate vulnerable countries welcome new 'loss and damage' plan

The first proposals on how countries can deal with the notoriously difficult area of climate change-related “loss and damage” have been launched to the guarded approval of nations struggling with the impacts of global warming and the wariness of high-income countries expected to foot the bill. The Alliance for Locally Led Approaches for Transformative Action, or ALL ACT, laid out a plan for countries to create national loss and damage finance institutions to channel funding, coordinate planning and expertise, and establish resource centers such as a Loss and Damage Observatory to share information. “Despite [the loss and damage] fund being announced at COP27, no funding is yet available to developing countries,” said Ritu Bharadwaj, the International Institute for Environment and Development researcher behind the ALL ACT proposals that launched in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Monday. “The lack of … technical assistance, means it is challenging for vulnerable countries to manage … or prepare themselves.” She hoped her ideas would help to pool existing resources, including development and humanitarian funding, improve collaboration, and make money easier to access locally. Loss and damage has long been one of the trickiest areas of international climate negotiations and is closely associated with the themes of climate justice and historical responsibility for carbon emissions. While the world agreed at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference in November to create a loss and damage fund — widely viewed as a key milestone in climate negotiations — no details were agreed upon. Many high-income countries, which have historically produced more of the greenhouse gas emissions causing global warming, have been wary of conceding to loss and damage demands from climate-vulnerable countries, particularly for financing, which remains low. The initiative was partly based on climate policy specialists asking themselves “what are the practical solutions that we can take forward rather than waiting for an international process to catch up,” said Tom Mitchell, executive director at IIED. The proposals were launched with the International Center for Climate Change and Development, led by Saleemul Huq, who said people suffering from climate shocks “can’t afford to wait until the world wakes up and starts filling the coffers of the loss and damage fund.” The proposals have won the support of eight countries from the least developed countries and small island states groups, which are negotiating blocs in international climate talks, that now want to establish national loss and damage facilities, according to Bharadwaj. Some high-income countries such as Germany, Ireland, and New Zealand also voiced their support. Christopher Bartlett, who is part of Vanuatu’s National Advisory Board on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction, said his country was “one of the strongest allies” of the proposals. Citing recent hurricanes to hit the Pacific nation, Bartlett said the government now faced a “near impossible development pathway” of having to grapple with the impact of the storms, continue to provide basic services “to a population that has been ravaged,” and prepare for the next extreme event — all while dealing with slower-moving climate events, such as ocean acidification and changing rainfall patterns, “which are upending our subsistence food production.” Bartlett also highlighted Vanuatu’s push for a legal ruling at the U.N.’s International Court of Justice to rule on state obligations and legal consequences for harm caused by climate impacts. Kishan Kumarsingh of Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Planning and Development praised the “wonderful initiative” — but added that the design of national facilities should consider how they would differ from work done via existing climate funding arrangements such as the Green Climate Fund and Adaptation Fund. Kumarsingh also stressed that the “response to loss and damage is not delayed [climate] adaptation, that implies you can fix it.” The meeting revealed a divide between high-income nations supportive of the ALL ACT proposals, and those whose officials showed up to the meeting, but did not express outright support, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Norway. Development setbacks caused by climate-related loss and damage could be avoided by international cooperation, according to Heike Henn, director for climate, energy, and environment at Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. But she warned that “we have no time to waste on loss and damage politics,” referencing the slow progress of the issues in talks. There was a need for policymakers to link loss and damage responses “very closely with existing development and humanitarian work which often is very much overlapping,” said Sinead Walsh, climate director and deputy director general at Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs. “We need all hands on deck for loss and damage,” Walsh added.