SIDS to benefit from COP27 ‘Loss and Damage’ fund
SMALL ISLAND DEVEVELOPMENT STATES (SIDS) will benefit from the ‘Loss and Damage’ Fund following the compact brokered at the recent multi-days climate change conference concluded in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres who lauded the financial deal, said that more needs to be done to drastically reduce emissions now.
“The world still needs a giant leap on climate ambition.,” UN’s Guterres said.
He said, “The red line we must not cross is the line that takes our planet over the 1.50 temperature limit,” he stressed, urging the world not to relent “in the fight for climate justice and climate ambition.”
“We can and must win this battle for our lives,” Guterres concluded.
the fund is to help developing countries, especially those vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate crisis, suffer losses from droughts, floods, rising seas and other disasters from catastrophic to climate change.
The negotiated ‘Loss and Damage’ text recognised the need for financial support and no decisions were reached about who should contribute into the fund; the source of the funding; and who will be the beneficiaries. This was a thorny negotiating during the 15-day UN Climate Change meeting.
Adaptation measures to beat the crisis includes constructing sea walls, growing drought-resistant crops has been estimated conservatively to cost developing countries between US$160 – US$340B annually by 2030.
The figure could swell by as “much as US$565 billion by 2050 if climate change accelerates,” the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said on its website.
Recently, Minister responsible for Environment & Climate Action, Dr Joyelle Clarke, told a press conference that her Ministry welcomes the support of international partners in taking greater responsibility for climate change and its impact on SIDS such as St. Kitts and Nevis.
“There is now a streamlined fund dedicated to responding to all the problems we have faced in St. Kitts and Nevis for years, since as smaller islands, we do not contribute to climate change as significantly as richer, larger countries do,” Minister Clarke said.
Clarke who was attended the COP27 said the fund is a significant win for SIDS, who for decades, has been petitioning for this type of acknowledgment and intervention.
The recently established inter-ministerial agency in Basseterre will support loss and damage for the ministry of water, and champion energy as an economic sector in the twin-island Federation.
Present at the Post-COP27 press conference were, Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Denzil Douglas; Minister of Public Infrastructure, Energy & Utilities, Konris Maynard, and Permanent Secretary (PS) within the Ministry of Environment & Climate Action, Ms Sharon Rattan.
