Addressing ‘Loss and Damage’ is a challenge for vulnerable countries

The latest round of UN climate talks has ended up without a clear direction about how climate adaptation measures would be funded in vulnerable countries, such as Bangladesh, putting the discussion on hold until next year’s climate summit.

The parties attending the COP23 in Germany expressed the need for another year to finalize the guidelines for implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement by 2020.This followed a rejection by the developed countries of a demand for finance to cover climate change-induced Loss and Damage in vulnerable developing countries.

However, the UNFCCC finally integrated ‘Loss and Damage’ in its current agenda, considered as a third plank in the worldwide effort to combat climate change, along with mitigation and adaptation. 

Therefore, Warsaw International Mechanism for ‘Loss and Damage’ in 2013, got embedded institutionally within the international climate regime - to expand the understanding of climate consequences and to find an appropriate mix of tools to address ‘Loss and Damage’.

At the COP23, the first “Island COP” with Fiji as a presidency, provided a unique opportunity for Small Island Developing States and other vulnerable developing countries to raise awareness for their climate change-related challenges, and to bring their concerns into the center of the negotiations.

REUTERS/Erik De Castro – Courtesy of Alertnet

However, ‘Loss and Damage’ is an ambiguous concept for the vulnerable countries, especially those, that are disproportionally affected by climate change. This kind of countries has highlighted the need for compensatory measures.

In contrast, developed countries have sought to limit discussion of liability and compensation, framing loss and damage as a matter of adaptation, not allowing UN climate talks to make any progress on the issue of climate finance.

There is no estimate of how much money is needed by countries suffering climate change-induced loss and damage now and in the future. Under the Paris Agreement, the Green Climate Fund is supposed to ramp up to $100 billion by 2020. But as of mid-2017, the fund had raised an anemic total of $10.3 billion, while the bulk of the money countries have pledged so far has yet to be paid.

“Developed countries can’t keep putting off the issue. It must feature in the global stock take of steps being taken by governments around the world to combat climate change.” Sandeep Chamling Rai, senior adviser for global adaptation policy, WWF International.

At the COP23, another initiative launched to provide insurance to 400 million poor and vulnerable people around the world by 2020. The project, called the InsuResilience Global Partnership, aims to provide insurance against the damage increasingly being caused by global warming.

This Insurance Scheme brought together signatories and aspiring members in a joint effort to lay the foundation for effective collaboration to find a new pathway for negotiation. However, international NGO ActionAid said that insurance is not a safety net for all.

“Insurance might turn out to be a piece of the puzzle, but we can't pretend that it's a safety net for everyone,” said Harjeet Singh, global lead on climate change for ActionAid International. Who will bear the costs of insurance premiums for the various global initiatives? Should the poor people in vulnerable countries, need to pay for climate insurance? 

In conclusion, it is hard to say that the insurance initiatives for vulnerable to climate change impacts are on the right pathway. It is yet to address the requirements to do to account for the loss and damage suffered by communities.

Within UNFCCC, Warsaw International Mechanism is preparing a report on this, but it is not scheduled for completion until June 2019. Meanwhile, such a report is being prepared by COP23 delegates, mainly from the United States and Australia to block all discussions on finances around loss and damage.

Nevertheless, the insurance policies overlooked the climate impacts that are relatively slow, such as drought, sea level rise and ocean acidification, which are the severe climate change impact faced by the Pacific region.

Now, it is challenging, the vulnerable countries to develop their working mechanisms fulfilling Warsaw International Mechanism to step forward towards the finance on loss and damage.

Publisher: Daily Asian Age