Today is the last day of the negotiations in Bonn, and I’ve been feeling left out. Last year, you were hyped about creating me – the Loss & Damage Fund – but you seem to have left me behind in the Expo City of Dubai. My second board meeting is around the corner, but some of you don’t even want to invite me to the new climate finance goal. What am I, if I’m not climate finance?
Yes, we urgently need to mitigate and adapt, but what about the communities that are already facing climate impacts because of your decades of burning fossil fuels and failing to provide finance to developing countries? I’m here to help them respond, rebuild, recover, and keep their heads above water – literally.
The third and final Glasgow Dialogue made me hopeful for some recognition, and you did raise many important points: making me directly accessible to communities, gender-responsive, and human rights-based. You talked about my relationships with the WIM and the Santiago Network – as Facebook would say: “it’s complicated”. But now that the Glasgow Dialogue is over, there is no new space available to discuss how I will grow and develop? And how am I even going to exist, if I’m not funded at scale to meet the needs of communities and countries?
Dear delegates, as we approach the end of ten long days of negotiations, and as some of you start packing your bags to meet me in Songdo, remember me: a potential lifeline for communities at the frontlines of climate disasters. Now that we are making progress in setting up the Secretariat, let’s get the money pledged at COP28 in the bank account, provide it to developing countries at the earliest, and raise billions more! Your talk about ambition and urgency rings hollow without concrete and adequate support and commitment. Let’s ensure that when I see you again, I’m not a forgotten promise, but a tangible source of hope and justice: filled with money, human rights guarantees and community-led activities.