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A network of countries has warned that war and conflict are a “blind spot” in climate talks that are consistently ignored. Cop30 climate conference In Brazil.
In a statement shared exclusively with IndependentA group of 10 countries have called on the COP30 climate conference for climate finance to be allocated “more equitably” and for funds to be spent more effectively on adaptation and resilience projects, rather than just being provided once a humanitarian disaster strikes.
The countries behind the statement – which collectively form a group known as the Improving and Equitable Access to Climate Finance (IEACF) Network – include Somalia, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, Yemen, South Sudan, Chad and Burundi.
He also warned that they are most vulnerable to the effects of climate crisis But are receiving only 10 percent of global climate assistance, preventing them from adapting and building resilience to the devastating impacts of the climate crisis.
The announcement comes a year after the network was formed at Cop29, which came with a call $20 billion Annual assistance to meet the climate adaptation needs of these countries. However, this year, despite high-profile conversations about climate finance in other regions, Brazil’s president has ignored calls for countries to make the topic a significant part of the agenda.
Mauricio Vazquez, head of global risk and resilience policy at the think tank ODI Global, said: “We have a situation where these countries are being most affected by climate change after contributing the least – but because of how the global financial architecture is organized, they are not getting the funds to address the problem.
“Instead the money goes into humanitarian aid, which makes no sense. For example, Somalia gets about $300 million in climate finance per year, but more than $1 billion in humanitarian aid.”
The network is about helping countries share learnings about how to receive aid, Vazquez said, in order to combat a system that is giving priority to wealthier or more stable countries. brazil Or South AfricaHis comments come after a former chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) group said Independent That red tape is making it It is very difficult for the world’s poorest countries So that they can get the help they desperately need.
Before the statement was issued, several representatives of conflict-affected countries said Independent About the challenges of getting aid to tackle climate change.
“Chad is a landlocked country facing many challenges, including the aggression of the terrorist group Boko Haram and its consequences Lake Chad is shrinking by more than 90 percent Due to climate change over the last fifty years,” said Omar Gadji Soumaila, director general of Chad’s Climate Fund.
“We understand that climate donors cannot give their money without assurances, and we are not on an easy path. We just want recognition that the challenges we face of desertification and insecurity are not the same as other countries, and we need more support.”
Soumaila said the $6,000 cost of the flight from Chad to Belém meant the country’s delegation to Cop30 consisted of fewer than 25 people, compared with more than 100 in previous contingents. “This has impacted our ability to exert pressure on various areas of dialogue,” he said.
For Liban Obsiye, who manages climate finance at Somalia’s Ministry of Finance, the current difficulties conflict-affected countries face in accessing climate finance is “stupid economics”.
“The role of climate finance here is not to think of fragile states as receiving donations, but actually building resilience from the bottom up,” he explains. Independent,
“The irony is that when the alarm is raised for humanitarian disaster, billions of people mobilize. But if you don’t invest in climate resilience disaster will strike again, and you are stuck delivering food parcels to once proud communities that have lost everything, again and again, which is heartbreaking.”
Yemen’s Environment Minister Tawfiq al-Sharjabi said Independent Despite this, the government faces “enormous operational and political challenges” war torn countryClimate action and access to climate finance remain a priority as climate and drought conditions become increasingly severe in the country.
He said, “The war, with all its tragedies, has obscured a more fundamental crisis: the devastating and growing consequences of climate change.”
“The greatest threat facing our country today is the direct and devastating impact of climate on our declining water reserves, which are seriously threatened by drought.
“We cannot hope to build lasting peace when communities are struggling for the last drop of water or bread, and we cannot rely solely on humanitarian aid, we need to create and nurture our own resilient solutions.”
ODI Global’s Vazquez said private lenders’ concerns about investing in conflict-affected countries means aid is especially important for these countries, as they have few other avenues to obtain funding to tackle climate change.
Furthermore, he said, at a time when rich countries are cutting their aid budgets, it is important that rich countries allocate resources to the countries that actually have the most of them.
“If the little money we have left is not being invested in the best possible ways, you create a vicious cycle where countries remain dependent on humanitarian aidWithout being able to build capacity for the future,” he said.
This article was produced as part of The Independent Rethinking global aid Project