ECO heard Barbados Prime Minister Mottley say: “Ask the peoples of the world to hold us accountable and ask us to act in your name and ask us to save this earth and the peoples of this earth”. We have been, but often we find we are speaking in empty rooms.
We heard from the continent of Africa and the Small Island States the horrible tradeoffs that they must make when they are faced with devastating impacts as they shoulder the burden of the costs to support their people and rebuild, recover whatever can be recovered. Hear them, wealthy polluters who still peddle false solutions – what if you had the choice between feeding your communities and schooling your children. What would you do? Who will you turn to?
We heard the anguish. We want you to know if no one else in that big room heard you – we, your citizens and your people of the world — we heard and will amplify.
We heard very clearly that this year must deliver finance to address loss and damage. So let’s play the “end my sentence game” where one person adds to another, and see if that helps with the reception in the hall.
“Loss and damage is not an abstract topic of endless dialogue, it is our daily experience . . .” “. . . we need to leave this conference with a solution on financing of L&D.”
And you may ask, how? Well, “How do companies make US$200 billion in profits in the last 3 months and not expect to contribute at least 10c to a Loss and Damage fund.” “How come the Global North borrows at interest rates between 1-4%, whilst the Global South at 14%?”. And just to be sure that it is not lost in translation, loans are not the solution, grants are.
Heed the words of the UNSG: “Loss and damage can no longer be swept under the rug. It is a fundamental question of climate justice . . . The answers are in our hands and the clock is ticking . . . we are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.”