Climate disaster aid scheme insufficient solution to loss and damage — groups
BALI, Indonesia — The Philippines will be among the first countries to receive financial support from a scheme that seeks to provide funding to communities suffering from climate disasters, but groups questioned the effectiveness of the initiative.
The Group of Seven (G7) and the Vulnerable 20 Group of Finance Ministers (V20) of countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change launched the “Global Shield against Climate Risks” as the COP27 climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt entered its final week.
The scheme aims to provide “pre-arranged financial support designed to be quickly deployed in times of climate disaster.”
Aside from the Philippines, the first recipients of Global Shield packages also include Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Fiji, Ghana, Pakistan and Senegal.
READ: Climate vulnerable nations seek funds, but caught in red tape
The scheme is largely in the form of insurance that pays out immediately — or even before — a climate disaster.
Distraction?
But some Filipino campaigners stressed that the scheme is not enough to cover the “loss and damage” vulnerable communities have already suffered from a warming planet.
“Definitely, the Global Shield is not enough to cover the loss and damage to peoples and communities from the Global South,” Lidy Nacpil, coordinator of Asia Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development, told Philstar.com.
Loss and damage, or how wealthy economies should compensate developing countries for climate-fueled disasters, is a thorny issue at climate change negotiations. For years, countries that got rich from burning planet-warming fossil fuels have resisted the creation of a loss and damage fund for fear of climate liability.
READ: Rich, developing nations head toward climate compensation clash
“We can understand why governments of vulnerable countries are accepting the Global Shield as part of the response from the Global North due to the urgency of the needs. But we are certain the governments from vulnerable countries are not going to settle just for this. They are demanding more,” Nacpil added.
Joy Reyes, a human rights and climate justice lawyer with the Manila Observatory, called the scheme a “distraction.”
“[It] will incentivize rich countries to delay funding. The ask is to establish a loss and damage financing facility. Insurance plays a small part in addressing loss and damage,” she said.
The Global Shield is designed to provide livelihood protection, social protection systems, livestock and crop insurance, and property insurance.
The funding has an initial funding of more than $200 million.
- Latest
