The world has been experiencing extreme weathers as the latter drives climate action to save lives and livelihoods worldwide, finance to implement sustainable, reads the press released on the 9th of November 2022.
According to the press release, nations will discuss loss and damage financing for the first time at COP27. A “breakthrough” agreement allowing diplomats to officially debate for the first time who should pay for damage sustained by the countries most vulnerable to climate change.
Delegates are aiming to reach a conclusive decision on loss and damage “no later than 2024,” Egypt’s Foreign Minister and COP27 President Sameh Shoukry said in his opening speech during which he emphasized the talks would be constructive and focused on “cooperation and facilitation” rather than “liability and compensation.”
The agreement “creates for the first time an institutionally stable space on the formal agenda of the COP and the Paris Agreement to discuss the pressing issue of funding arrangements needed to deal with existing gaps in responding to loss and damage,” reported Shoukry.
Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at the nonprofit Climate Action Network International, described the weekend’s negotiations as “extremely challenging,” and others are voicing trepidation about the likelihood of an agreement over the next two weeks. “This is going to be a difficult COP,” one delegate said.
A showdown has been brewing for some time as Wealthy nations have opposed official discussions on climate compensation for over a decade and at COP26 blocked a proposal for a dedicated loss and damage financing body, supporting instead a dialogue for funding discussions to take place over three years.
With rich nations already being accused of “bullying” poorer countries during the weekend’s talks, expect the question of who pays for the climate crisis to be a major source of tension at this year’s summit.
Climate finance has been a key area of focus for policymakers in the run-up to the summit, with Egypt climate czar Mahmoud Mohieldin being particularly vocal in calling for compensation for climate change-driven damage and a funding shift away from debt, towards investment (here and here).
Another note hit hard and early yesterday: The need for action in the face of “climate chaos.” COP27 must spur urgent and credible climate action, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a video message, terming the UN’s newly-released State of the Global Climate Report 2022 a “chronicle of climate chaos.”
It’s time to start delivering on the Paris Agreement and other previously agreed climate pledges, Aboulmagd said. Last year’s summit in Glasgow saw several important pledges agreed on, including “phasing down” the use of coal, halting deforestation by 2030, slashing methane emissions by 30% by 2030, and submitting updated national plans with more ambitious targets.
Along the process, Sharma also warned against delaying action. “Our shared long-term future does not lie in fossil fuels,” Sharma said in his address. While “every major report published this year underscores the point that progress has been made … there is so much more to be done in this critical decade,” Sharma added.
Took place on the chair, the African Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank, and the World Bank will help countries and other clients include adaptation and mitigation into their overall economic planning, offering support in areas including policymaking, investment plans and securing funding sources.
Again, boosting adaptation finance for low-income countries, island states, and vulnerable populations, and increasing concessional finance will be among their priorities.As of last year, the lenders collectively channeled USD 51 bn in climate finance to low- and middle-income countries — split 65% for mitigation and 35% for adaptation, according to the EBRD. Some USD 31 bn went to high-income countries, with 95% earmarked for mitigation and 5% for adaptation. They mobilized a further USD 41 bn of private finance.
As for Burundi, the current environmental situation shows three major problems: degradation and exhaustion of soils, degradation of forestry resources and human environmental degradation.
Burundi has developed many adaptation projects to address adverse effects of climate change based on existing coping mechanisms and practices. These projects, according to environmental experts, include a project on the improvement of seasonal early warning climate forecasts and another on the Protection of buffer zones in Lake Tanganyika floodplain and around the lakes of Bugesera in Northern Burundi.
“Climate change has been brutal for Burundi. Shifting weather patterns mainly heavy rains, the high winds, and the dry spells have become increasingly unpredictable and extreme. Floodwaters have decimated communities, destroying homes and livelihoods. In the mountains, landslides are a constant threat,” said Leonidas Nzigiyimpa, an environmental expert and lecturer at the National University.
At the end of 2019, over 114,000 people in Burundi have been displaced by climate change-related disasters, and the trend is likely to continue, impacting harvests and causing further displacement.
Above, a displacement camp near Gatumba, a farming community that flooded when the Rusizi River and Lake Tanganyika overflowed their banks, forcing 25,000 people to flee. With water levels continuing to rise, recovery has been difficult.
Same year (in 2019), a series of landslides triggered by heavy rainfall coupled with deforestation devastated parts of northern Burundi. Cascading mud overtook the mountain village of Gisheke (Kirundo Province), toppling over 350 homes, and 37 people died, including ten whose bodies were never found.
Some 10,000 homes in Gatumba were swept away by heavy rains in the begnning of 2020, and all but three of the district’s 14 schools were so damaged they had to shut down. Large sections of Gatumba remained underwater. Fields where locals used to grow beans and corn have turned into fisheries — and breeding grounds for waterborne disease.
The country’s hydrological system is defined by two large catchment areas: the Nile basin and the Congo River basin. Soil degradation, deforestation and sanitation issues are Burundi’s three main environmental challenges.
Already deforestation and soil erosion heavy rains have resulted in floods and the destruction of infrastructure in the country, and make the country more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
This article has been published with support from MESHA/IDRC grant for coverage of COP-27 by African science journalists
