'We can't wait another year': disaster-hit nations call for climate aid. July 12, 2024

A man stands on the roof of his flooded house after heavy rains in Nowshera district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, on April 16, 2024. (AFP)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

'We can't wait another year': disaster-hit nations call for climate aid.

Countries on the frontline of climate change have warned that they cannot wait another year for long-awaited aid to recover from disasters such as floods and hurricanes that are wreaking havoc worldwide.

The appeal was made during a meeting of the "loss and damage" fund, which ended on Friday, amid concerns that it is unlikely to be able to approve climate aid until 2025.

"We cannot wait until the end of 2025 for the first funds to go out the door," Adão Soares Barbosa, a council member from East Timor and a longtime negotiator for the world's poorest nations, told AFP.

"Loss and damage are not waiting for us."

Almost 200 nations agreed at the UN COP28 summit last November to launch a fund responsible for distributing aid to developing countries for reconstruction after climate disasters.

This historic moment gave way to complex negotiations to finalize the design of the fund, which some countries fear will not move at a pace or scale that matches the pace of extreme weather disasters afflicting their people.

"The urgency of the needs of vulnerable countries and communities cannot be put aside until we have all the hairs for this fund," said Barbosa.

Damage bills caused by climate disasters can run into billions and currently, there is barely enough money set aside for loss and damage to cover just one such event, experts say.

- 'Immense pressure' - you

This year has witnessed a series of disasters on several continents, from floods and landslides to heatwaves and forest fires.

Delegates gathered in South Korea for the second loss and damage fund meeting this week as Hurricane Beryl left a trail of destruction in the Caribbean and North America.

The "massive" destruction witnessed in recent weeks "puts immense pressure on us to do our job," Richard Sherman, the South African board co-chair conducting the negotiations, told the meeting.

The fund said it wanted the money approved "as soon as possible, but realistically by mid-2025", according to an official document seen by AFP.

In a plea for faster action, Barbados council member Elizabeth Thompson said that Hurricane Beryl alone had caused "apocalyptic" damage worth "several billion dollars".

"On five islands in the Grenadines... 90% of the houses have disappeared... The houses look like bundles of cards and strips of wood, the roofs are gone, the trees are gone, there's no food, no water, no power," she said.

"We can't keep talking while people live and die in a crisis that wasn't caused by them."

Thompson said the fund needed to reflect "the urgency and scale required to respond... to the risk, damage, and devastation faced by people around the world who need this fund".

- No money, no funds - You have no money.

So far, wealthy nations have pledged around $661 million to the disaster fund. South Korea contributed a further US$7 million at the start of this week's meeting.

"This would hardly cover the likely losses from a major climate-related disaster," Camilla More of the International Institute for Environment and Development told AFP.

Some estimates suggest that developing countries need more than 400 billion dollars a year to rebuild after climate-related disasters. One study calculated the global bill at between $290 billion and $580 billion a year until 2030 and rising thereafter.

In one example, in 2022, an unprecedented flood in Pakistan caused more than $30 billion in damage and economic losses, according to a UN-backed assessment.

Climate activist Harjeet Singh said that failing to act at the speed and scale needed "would be a disservice to communities and countries on the frontline who see this fund as a cornerstone in their fight against climate adversity".

Developing nations had been pushing for a specific fund to distribute aid to recover from climate impacts for 30 years, and the agreement signed in November was considered a major diplomatic breakthrough.

"But we can't have a fund without money," said Brandon Wu, from ActionAid.

Technical discussions on the details are being held this year, including with the World Bank, which will house the fund on an interim basis.

The Philippines was chosen this week to host the fund's board.

There are still controversial discussions about how the money will be allocated and how it will be made available to countries.

On Tuesday, more than 350 non-governmental organizations sent a letter to the fund's board demanding that a substantial part of the money be made available directly as small donations to local communities and indigenous groups.

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