Short on time, the Maldives waves aside 'loss and damage' funding

When the “loss and damage” fund was agreed on at the 27th United Nations climate summit in November, it was a historic step, welcomed by climate-vulnerable countries as well as world leaders. At the time, Achim Steiner, administrator of the U.N. Development Programme, called it “long overdue” in a statement, noting that “this represents a significant step forward in the global fight against the climate emergency.” While the fund is “welcome,” the climate leader of one vulnerable state has spoken out about the need for “greater and more urgent” adaptation and mitigation finance so loss and damage funding — a form of climate reparations — won’t be so necessary. “Let's not wait until we've got to the stage of loss and damage before we start funding for adaptation properly, because once we've got to that stage, we can't get it back,” Sabra Ibrahim Noordeen, the special envoy for climate change at the President's Office of the Maldives, told Devex. An archipelago of 1,190 islands in the Indian Ocean, where 99% of the territory is comprised of the sea, the Maldives is already experiencing — and having to adapt to — the impacts of global warming. Rising sea levels jeopardize access to fresh water while increased ocean temperatures impact marine biodiversity: Around 70% of the country’s coral reefs were damaged in the 2016 bleaching event. Fisheries and tourism directly account for approximately 40% of the Maldives’ gross domestic product. “At this point, adaptation for us is not small projects, island by island. We need it on a large scale, and often [pertaining to] infrastructure too. We're talking coastal protection, harbors, making sure islands have clean water, sanitation systems, things like that,” Noordeen said, speaking at the opening of a new marine conservation and education center inside the Six Senses resort in Laamu atoll, which aims to educate both locals and tourists on the country’s underwater life. “And those aren't things you can always wait for funding to just appear [for].” As it stands, the Maldives currently funds a lot of this work via its limited domestic budget. “When you have things like the pandemic or even a conflict like in Ukraine, which impacts our main source of revenue, that really puts the pressure on the available resources again,” Noordeen said, adding that the national efforts of the country and other climate-vulnerable states will never be enough on their own. “Our main message has always been that we want to remain in the Maldives, and in order to remain in the Maldives, we have to have the support and the resources — whether it's technical or financial — to adapt and be resilient to the changes that are coming or the changes that are already taking place. … We can't save ourselves, as much as we would want to.” The loss and damage fund, once established, would see countries such as the Maldives receive assistance from higher-income countries as they look to rebuild, restore, and rehabilitate communities following climate disasters. Recommendations as to how it will be operationalized and where funding will come from will be shared at COP 28 in November, but The Alliance for Locally Led Approaches for Transformative Action has already shared a plan for how countries might begin constructing their own national loss and damage finance institutions to engage with the fund. Neither mitigation, adaptation, nor addressing loss and damage should be prioritized over the other, said Harjeet Singh, head of the global political strategy at Climate Action Network International. “Less adaptation finance will result in communities being ill-prepared to deal with intensifying floods or cyclones as well as the slow effects of global warming, such as rising sea levels and glacial melt, leading to more loss and damage,” he said. According to the Climate Policy Initiative, $46 billion was spent on adaptation from 2019 to 2020. But estimates project lower-income countries alone will require between $140 billion and $300 billion each year by 2030. Singh believes “accounting tricks and dodgy methodologies” have been used to double-count climate finance while Noordeen said global funds such as The Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund have been too slow and require scientific studies to show project relevance that come with upfront costs. She pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as a recent example of significant funds being raised and distributed swiftly. “We know that that kind of resource is available if the effort is put in to mobilize it,” she said, “We just haven't seen that effort yet.” She suggested the facilitation of greater levels of climate finance offered to vulnerable countries at a reduced rate, the restructuring of access and eligibility requirements to such finance, and stipulations that all development funding go toward projects that consider how to adapt to the effects of climate change. The international community could also find additional ways of supporting countries such as the Maldives. “Hundreds of billions of dollars can be raised through innovative financial instruments and tools, such as progressive taxes on the extractive industries, particularly oil, gas, and coal, and a small levy to raise revenue from the trading of financial instruments,” Singh suggested while Nordeen recommended debt relief, blue bonds, and support in generating more marine protected areas. Noordeen said both the private and public sectors are doing their part to adapt and act. For example, the government has constructed Hulhumalé, aka City of Hope, that sits two meters above sea level, is made out of ocean-pumped sand, and offers housing designed to keep temperatures low and have urban farming spaces for 240,000 people. In the tourism sector, tour operators are installing floating solar panels, applying their own protection to areas, and running conservation facilities. “It makes financial sense and also fits into their sustainability narrative,” Nordeen said. “The Maldives has big ambitions on climate and on conservation and especially marine protection, and we really want to champion those things, but we need help in order to do that.” Editor's note: The reporter traveled to the Maldives with the support of Six Senses Laamu. Devex retains full editorial independence and responsibility for this content. Update, March 16, 2023: This article has been updated to reflect the Maldives’ reasons for encouraging the private and public sectors to support adaptation funding.