Experts have called for the introduction of legal agreements on loss and damage of climate change by way of tying developed nations towards meeting their climate finance pledges.
These losses and damages; are destructive impacts of climate change that cannot be avoided either by mitigation or adaptation.
Currently there’re continued concerns of lack of commitment from rich nations to meet their financial pledges to developing nations as gestured at the climate summit in Egypt.
Earlier; by end of the first week of negotiations only a few pledges were made from individual governments with Australia committing the highest amount of 50 million US dollars over the next four years.
Australias climate minister Leonore Gewessler said: “the funds could support the Santiago Network a U.N Scheme providing technical support to countries faced with damages from climate fueled natural disasters, and a program providing early warning systems to countries prone to extreme weather.
Smaller commitments were also made from New Zealand, US$12 million, Scotland, £5 million and US$2.5 million from Belgium.
Nonetheless, this falls far short of the billions of dollars in losses already suffered by vulnerable countries hit frequently by extreme floods and storms.
For instance in Malawi alone, Cyclone Ana which hit the nation in January 2022 affected close to 1 million people, killing 46, injuring 206 and displacing over 221 thousand.
Also, according to Elsewhere Mkaka, minister of natural resources and climate change, Malawi needs funds amounting to 64.3 billion US dollars to finance its climate interventions.
Not surprising therefore that in his address to delegates at the summit, Malawi President, Lazarus Chakwera challenged rich nations to meet their climate finance pledges as time was running out.
“I must hasten to add that while we need financial investments to prevent climate-induced damage and loss of food going forward it does not address the loss and damage of food that climate change is causing right now,” said the Malawi leader.
Currently 3.8 million Malawians have had their food lost and damaged because of climate change.
However, assessing the negotiations on the loss and damage agenda; Collins Nzovo, Minister of Green Economy and Environment in Zambia and chair of the Zambian Group of negotiators said he was hopeful of fruitful negotiations on loss and damage as the summit concludes this week.
“If youre going to resolve anything you have got to be on the table, the expectations are not that immediately loss and damage is on the table, then tomorrow youre cashing a cheque, there are mechanisms in which this framework should be done,” Nzovo said.
Meanwhile, Dr Betchani Tchereni, an economics scholar from the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences observed the reluctance from developed nations to commit finance for loss and damage was as a result of lack of legally binding agreements on the agenda.
“This denial from rich nations is because of lack of legally binding agreements on loss and damage, developed countries know that there are no penalties for failing to commit to the loss and damage agenda, so they will continue to take advantage of that and do nothing,” said Tchereni.
On his part; Kossam Munthali, chairperson of Natural Resources Justice Network has told MIJ Online that failure by developed nations to make significant commitments to the loss and damage agenda was threatening efforts aimed at addressing impacts of climate change in vulnerable countries like Malawi.
“Its quite unfortunate that developed countries who remain the main polluters do not want to be responsible for the damages through climate financing despite spending resources in developing a series of documents which they themselves dont subscribe to , they need to respect the polluter pay principles through timely and accessible climate financing”, Munthali said.
The current state of affairs is also contrary to expectations Africa had prior to the summit as Africa Group of Negotiators Chair, Ephraim Mwepya Shitima said there were hopeful that the African Cop will deliver implementable climate actions on the priority issues of the continent and other developing nations including on adaptation and loss and damage.
“Africa is the least contributor to global greenhouse emissions with less than 4% of total global emissions and yet the most adversely impacted region as affirmed by the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, and this is a clear indication of climate injustice” Mwepya said.
Equally, Madeleine Diof Sarr, Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group said she was expectant that this was the year to bring the vital issue of climate loss and damage to life.
“An African Cop is the ideal place to see the creation of a loss and damage fund so that the poorest and most vulnerable people can get the help they deserve”, Sarr said.
According to a report by Oxfam, loss and damage costs could increase to between $290 billion and $580 billion a year by 2030 and rising to trillions by 2050.
The audit further states that much of this will be shouldered by developing countries which are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
*This article has been published with support from MESHA/IDRC grant for coverage of COP-27 by African science journalists.