Now at 1.2 degree Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels, climate change is already causing havoc in countries around the world. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared the latest IPCC Climate Report a ‘Code Red for Humanity’, highlighting already overstretched and limited coping capacities.
Loss and Damage – the impacts of climate change that were not averted or minimised through adaptation and mitigation activities – is already a lived reality for people around the world, violating their human rights and displacing more than 30 million people in 2020 alone. Poor and vulnerable countries and communities are least responsible for climate change but are already facing the majority of its negative impacts.
The projected economic cost of loss and damage by 2030 is estimated to be between US$ 290 and 580 billion annually in developing countries alone. Scaled up new and additional finance at a level commensurate with the need is therefore essential for vulnerable countries and communities to recover from the climate impacts they are already facing and to rebuild their livelihoods and economies. While finance for averting and minimising Loss and Damage has been mobilised in the form of finance for mitigation and adaptation, finance for addressing Loss and Damage remains lacking, apart from highly insufficient humanitarian aid.
Together with more than 300 civil society organisations, CAN is demanding COP26 to urgently deliver on Loss and Damage finance by taking the following actions:
1. Decide at COP26 to provide sufficient and needs-based Loss and Damage finance, in addition to the $100bn per year committed for mitigation and adaptation and on the basis of equity, historical responsibility and global solidarity, applying the polluter pays principle. Loss and Damage finance should also be included in the post-2025 climate finance target.
2. Establish a process to identify the scale of funding needed to address Loss and Damage as well as suitable mechanisms to deliver the finance to developing countries. The outcome must be presented at COP27 in order to start delivering Loss and Damage finance.
3. Support developing countries in enabling national level systems to distribute Loss and Damage finance. This is necessary to ensure country ownership, gender responsiveness and self-determination over how finance is used, so it reaches the populations that are most vulnerable and in need. Full operationalisation of the Santiago Network for Loss and Damage could facilitate this process.
These demands were sent to the COP26 President Alok Sharma and world leaders in an open letter, demanding that COP26 urgently commit to deliver finance on Loss and Damage.