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Activists want govt to push for, walk the talk on climate ‘loss and damage’
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Participants visit the Sharm El Sheikh International Convention Centre, ready for the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) climate summit, in Egypt's Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, on Nov. 5. (AFP/Joseph Eid)
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s the United Nations climate summit in Egypt is still debating whether rich countries will compensate poorer countries for the loss and damage from climate-induced natural disasters, environmentalists urge Indonesia to campaign for the issue and walk the talk by decarbonizing its economy.
The term loss and damage in climate negotiations refers to the destruction caused by climate change. And vulnerable, lower-income nations bearing little blame for climate-warming emissions are fighting for a new fund from the world's wealthiest nations to help them recover from the resulting disasters.
This year's 27th United Nations Climate Conference (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh entered its final week on Monday involving nearly 200 countries. But deep divisions remain over, among other issues, a new funding mechanism for loss and damage, with some delegates beginning to discuss the possibility that the summit would run over into the weekend, Reuters reported.
Greenpeace Indonesia director Leonard Simanjuntak said that discussions on new compensation funds were long overdue as from COP to COP developed countries were failing to live up to their existing promises of climate finance.
The latest calculation by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) looking at climate finance up to 2020 found that developed countries had so far only mobilized US$83.3 billion in climate finance to developing countries in 2020, out of the promised US$100 billion per year by 2020.
Read also: Rainforest giants Brazil, Indonesia, DR Congo sign deforestation pact
Leonard said that the loss and damage scheme should have gained momentum from the fact that COP27 was held on the African continent, which was far more likely to suffer the effects of global warming. Adding to the pressure, he said, were recent floods in Pakistan that showed how devastating climate-induced disasters could be.
