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	Global military expenditure reaches record high of $2440bn as critical aid is cut to millions by OCHA, WFP, UNICEF, Red Cross, agencies   As the United Nations Global Humanitarian funding appeal, the World Food Programme, UNICEF, UNHCR, the Red Cross and humanitarian agencies face serious shortfalls in funding to address the most urgent needs of over 300 million people in crisis, news agencies report bumper profits for billionaires, record company super profits and a new world record for global military spending.   The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) reports global military spending of $2440 billion in 2023.   Global military expenditure has reached a record high of $2440bn after the largest annual rise in government spending on arms in over a decade, according to a report. The 6.8% increase between 2022 and 2023 was the steepest since 2009, pushing spending to the highest recorded by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) in its 60-year history.   The two largest spenders – the United States (37%) and China (12%) – made up around half of global military spending, increasing their expenditure by 2.3% and 6% respectively. While dwarfed by the US in military spending, China, as the world’s second biggest spender, allocated an estimated $296bn in 2023, an increase of 6% on 2022. Russia, India, Saudi Arabia and the UK follow in Sipri’s league table.   http://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2024/global-military-spending-surges-amid-war-rising-tensions-and-insecurity   The Forbes 2024 Billionaires list reports that the number of worldwide billionaires grew by 141 in the past year, with 2,781 people holding wealth that exceeds $1 billion. These people own combined assets of $14.2 trillion, exceeding the gross domestic product of every country in the world except the U.S. and China.   Their collective wealth has risen by 120% in the past decade, at the same time as billions of people across the world have seen their living standards decrease in the face of inflation and the cost of living crisis.   Taxing windfall profits of fossil fuels and financial companies. (ActionAid, Oxfam)   In the two years running up to June 2023, 36 companies (14 in fossil fuels and 22 in the banking sector), made windfall profits of US$424 billion. These are not their overall profits, these are just the profits that are above and beyond their normal profits.   In the last two years, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and high inflation and interest rates in much of the world have helped contribute to the bumper profits of fossil fuels companies and the banking sector. By applying a 90% tax on these windfall profits, close to US$382bn could be raised. This money is urgently needed to address hunger, for climate action, to protect vulnerable communities and to build resilience through improved social protection and public services.   26 June 2024   Humanitarian responses across the world are desperately under-resourced, reports the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs   Global Humanitarian Overview 2024 Mid-year update: Cost of inaction. (OCHA)   In the face of major cuts in global funding, humanitarians prepared for 2024 by taking difficult decisions about who, and what, to include and exclude from humanitarian appeals around the world. Based on in-depth needs analyses, targets were tightened and tough choices were made, resulting in a reduction in the global appeal by more than $7 billion from 2023 to 2024 and a reduction in people targeted of 57.4 million.   However, as of the end of May, underfunding and access impediments combined to have devastating consequences, which were particularly acute given the already narrowed focus of the 2024 appeals:   With humanitarian operations globally just 16 per cent funded by the end of May, many humanitarian partners had to drastically reduce, and in some instances halt, critical programmes. While humanitarians were able to reach at least 39.7 million people with some form of humanitarian assistance in the first five months of the year, this represented just 27 per cent of people targeted. This comes on the back of a considerable reduction in people reached in 2023 (143 million), compared to 2022 (157 million), which coincided with a significant decrease in humanitarian funding.   Globally, more than 100 million targeted people (42 per cent) have not received water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) assistance due to underfunding. Cuts in food assistance due to underfunding are leaving people at risk of starvation. As a result of underfunding, food security partners have had to reduce assistance to already vulnerable people, or abandon assistance to people experiencing acute levels of food insecurity (IPC 3). As a result, these people may go into emergency or catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC 4 and IPC 5, respectively).   Underfunding is leaving millions of people without access to the health services they need to survive. Underfunding of health services increase maternal and child mortality, heighten non-communicable disease risk, deprive children of crucial vaccination services, reduce disease prevention interventions, limit primary health care access for pregnant women, children and individuals with disabilities.   Internally displaced persons, refugees and migrants are facing very significant cuts in support, with major reductions in assistance to meet their basic needs.   The bottom line – underfunding costs lives. When people cannot be reached with humanitarian assistance, protection and services, their lives and livelihoods are on the line. It is therefore imperative that there be an immediate step-change and a dramatic increase in global giving in order to ensure that the response plans and appeals prepared by humanitarian partners for 2024 are fully funded.   20 June 2024   Millions of people are teetering on the brink of starvation, reports the World Food Programme (WFP)   Millions of people are teetering on the brink of starvation as conflict rages across many corners of the world. This year, over 309 million people are estimated to face acute levels of food insecurity in the 71 countries with WFP operations and where data is available. This number does not yet account for the rapid and alarming deterioration in Sudan, as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis results are not yet available.   An estimated 37.2 million people across 47 countries will be in Emergency or worse levels of acute food insecurity (IPC/CH Phase 4 and above, including severely food insecure) in 2024, and require immediate emergency assistance to save lives and livelihoods.   An estimated 24.5 million children are predicted to be acutely malnourished in the 15 countries with the highest burden in 2024. The convergence of threats may further increase the number of children and pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls (PBWG) affected by acute malnutrition.   FAO and WFP have jointly warned that between June and October 2024, acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further in 18 hunger hotspots.   The current funding landscape is affecting the entire humanitarian sector, forcing WFP – and many others - to scale back assistance and refocus efforts on the most severe needs. As a consequence, nearly all of WFP’s largest operations have reduced or plan to substantially reduce their operational plans.   Less funding means that WFP often has to reduce assistance to already vulnerable people, or abandon assistance to people in Crisis levels of acute food insecurity (IPC/CH Phase 3). As a result, there is a real risk they may quickly fall into Emergency (IPC/CH Phase 4) and Catastrophe or Famine (IPC Phase 5) levels.   WFP programs between January to March 2024 provided humanitarian support 62 million of the most highly vulnerable people with food, cash, commodity vouchers, in comparison 93 million people were assisted during the same period last year. This represents 34% fewer people assisted this year, mainly due to reduced funding levels compounded by access constraints.   Food and cash assistance (CBT) distributed during the same periods imply a 50% decrease in food and 43% decrease in CBT, showing an even larger drop than the drop in beneficiaries assisted. This means that food or cash per ration have been reduced further in 2024’s first quarter compared to the same time last year.   Preliminary data for this year suggests that the impact of the funding gap on WFP beneficiaries may be even more severe throughout the year than initially anticipated. WFP monitoring data further highlights the negative consequences of assistance cuts, with rises in malnutrition, early marriage, migration, and child labour, alongside dips in school enrolment. Families are resorting to desperate strategies to cope, such as selling off critical household assets which in turn drive them deeper into poverty and deprivation.   http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2024-mid-year-update http://www.unocha.org/news/un-deputy-relief-chief-funding-shortages-force-tougher-aid-decisions http://www.unocha.org/latest/news-and-stories http://reliefweb.int/report/world/wfp-global-operational-response-plan-2024-update-11-june-2024-new-synopsis-format http://www.wfp.org/publications/hunger-hotspots-fao-wfp-early-warnings-acute-food-insecurity-june-october-2024-outlook http://www.fsinplatform.org/report/global-report-food-crises-2024/ http://www.fao.org/emergencies/en http://www.wvi.org/publications/report/enough/ration-cuts-taking-hungry-feed-starving http://www.fightfoodcrises.net/hunger-hotspots/en http://www.ipcinfo.org/   http://www.wfp.org/publications/wfp-global-operational-response-plan-update-10-february-2024 http://www.wfp.org/stories/2023-pictures-ration-cuts-threaten-catastrophe-millions-facing-hunger http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/press-releases/global-hunger-funding-gap-hit-65-percent-for-neediest-countries/ http://humanitarianaction.info/document/global-humanitarian-overview-2024/ http://www.savethechildren.net/news/2023-review-nearly-16000-children-day-plunged-hunger-top-10-worsening-food-crises
	As climate threats escalate funding to support those most vulnerable is imperative by CAN International, IIED, OHCHR, agencies   Feb. 2025   Report: Loss and Damage Litigation Against Carbon Majors, by Ashley Otilia Nemeth; Jacob Metz-Lerman. (NYU School of Law)   The Climate Law Accelerator (CLX) has released its first report on climate-change-induced Loss and Damage. Drawing on the CLX Database of Loss and Damage Cases and insights from researchers and litigators, the report identifies key strategies and challenges that extend across the field of loss and damage litigation against Carbon Majors.   The report analyzes various aspects of pending cases, including defendants, jurisdictions, the theory of liability, the evidence used, and the remedies sought. In framing the extant loss and damage jurisprudence as a set of strategic choices, this review aims to help researchers, practitioners, impacted communities, and government agencies better understand the litigation efforts aimed at holding Carbon Majors accountable for climate change impacts.   http://clxtoolkit.com/publications/report-loss-and-damage-litigation-against-carbon-majors   Jan. 2025   Report: Understanding the landscape of climate finance, debt, tax and illicit financial flows and human rights | Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt   Climate finance is the funding allocated for the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. It can come from public, private and alternative sources and is directed at efforts such as reducing carbon emissions, building climate resilience and supporting vulnerable populations. Climate finance has become a central pillar in global climate governance, particularly under frameworks such as the Paris Agreement. The goal in the Paris Agreement of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels to avoid catastrophic climate impacts highlights the critical role that financial flows play in achieving these targets. Climate finance is rooted in the principle of common yet differentiated responsibilities, with developed countries expected to provide the bulk of financial resources to developing States, given the historical role of developed countries in emitting greenhouse gases and their greater capacity to mobilize resources.   The Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, Attiya Waris, submits to the Council her annual thematic report (A/HRC/58/51), in which she strives to take stock of ongoing global discussions on climate finance through a human rights lens. She reflects on disparities of power and finance across the world and the role of human rights in climate finance conversations. In the report, she elaborates on the intersection between debt, taxes and illicit financial flows, and on the implementation of innovative financing in an attempt to protect the right to a clean and healthy environment and prevent further climate change. The Independent Expert emphasizes the need for targeted finance that delivers tangible environmental improvements and calls for human rights frameworks to be incorporated into climate laws and policies to promote equity and social justice.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5851-understanding-landscape-climate-finance-debt-tax-and-illicit http://docs.un.org/en/A/HRC/58/51   Oct. 2024   Remediation for loss and damage essential to ensure climate justice and realise the right to development: UN expert. (OHCHR)   Climate justice requires developed countries and large corporations, especially fossil fuel corporations, to accept their historical responsibility to remediate adverse impacts of climate change-related loss and damage on the right to development and other human rights, said Surya Deva, the Special Rapporteur on the right to development.   In his report to the UN General Assembly, Deva proposed a climate justice framework comprising four pillars (mitigation, adaptation, remediation and transformation) and 12 overarching human rights principles. This framework should guide climate actions of States, multilateral development banks, businesses and other actors.   “As climate change impacts all human rights, the time has come to develop international climate law in line with international human rights law. Affected individuals and communities should be able to seek effective remedies for past, current and future climate change-related loss and damage,” the expert said.   “A transformation is required in the current economic order, including the international financial architecture, business models and lifestyles, because they are merely promoting cumulative economic growth, creating inequalities both within and among countries and destroying the planet,” Deva said.   The Special Rapporteur recalled that the impact of climate change is not experienced by people and countries equally. Although only one tenth of the world’s greenhouse gases are emitted by the 74 lowest income countries, they will be the worst impacted by the effects of climate change.   “It is paradoxical that least developed countries and small island developing States that have contributed the least to climate change are the most exposed to its impacts,” Deva said. “Similarly, children, women, older persons, peasants, migrants, persons with a disability and Indigenous Peoples are impacted by climate in a different and disproportionate way.”   Although the decision to establish a Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage is an important step towards climate justice, it is critical for the World Bank, as an interim trustee of the Fund, and the Fund’s Board to integrate several human rights principles into all aspects concerning the Fund’s administration.   “The Fund should mobilise adequate additional resources, including by tapping into innovative sources of funding such as a wealth tax on super-rich and a carbon tax on fossil fuel companies. The Fund should be accessible to affected communities, be gender-transformative, adopt participatory decision-making processes and mostly offer grants not to worsen the debt burden of developing countries,” the expert said.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/10/remediation-loss-and-damage-essential-ensure-climate-justice-and-realise http://clxtoolkit.com/publications/report-loss-and-damage-litigation-against-carbon-majo   Sep. 2024   The Impact on Loss and Damage from the Adverse Effects of Climate Change on the Full Enjoyment of Human Rights   At the 57th session of the UN Human Rights Council, the Global Initiative for Social, Economic and Cultural Rights delivered a statement on the impact of loss and damage from the adverse effects of climate change on the full enjoyment of human rights. The statement was meant to inform the Interactive Dialogue of the UN Secretary-General on the same matter.   The statement delivered highlighted the importance that despite significant strides have been made with the recent establishment of the Loss and Damage Fund, the current international architecture for managing loss and damage remains inadequate. It is imperative to increase financial flows. Thus far, the resources pledged fall drastically short of what is needed to address the scale and scope of the crisis.   Amid these daunting challenges, the statement emphasised that financing a just and adequate response to loss and damage is far from impossible. International tax cooperation is a decisive, yet often underestimated tool for unlocking the financial flows required to fund the structural transformations needed to address the impacts of climate change and ensure frontline communities have the means to cope with loss and damage.   In that context, GI-ESCR welcomed the report of the UN Secretary General makes an express reference to the importance of developing human rights and equity-based progressive taxation, guided by the polluter pays principle to target the fossil fuel industry and major greenhouse gas emitters in particular. This is a critical step forward to direct the necessary resources to respond to loss and damages suffered by the most marginalised.   http://gi-escr.org/en/our-work/on-the-ground/statement-on-the-impact-on-loss-and-damage-from-the-adverse-effects-of-climate-change-on-the-full-enjoyment-of-human-rights http://views-voices.oxfam.org.uk/2024/12/why-are-we-still-waiting-for-justice-on-loss-and-damage/   * OHCHR: Report of the Secretary General:   Analytical study on the impact of loss and damage from the adverse effects of climate change on the full enjoyment of human rights, exploring equity-based approaches and solutions.   The report of the Secretary-General, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 53/6, contains an exploration of the interlinkages between human rights and loss and damage from climate change. The report includes the identification of legal and policy frameworks relevant to ensuring effective remedies for loss and damage, a description of human rights and equity-based approaches and solutions and a series of recommendations:   http://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session57/advance-versions/A-HRC-57-30-AEV.pdf   * Social protection is a prerequisite for climate justice:   http://www.developmentpathways.co.uk/blog/social-protection-is-a-prerequisite-for-climate-justice/ http://www.ilo.org/publications/flagship-reports/world-social-protection-report-2024-26-universal-social-protection-climate http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/2024/05/policy-brief-social-protection-for-climate-justice-why-and-how/   Apr.2024   Taxing fossil fuel giants could raise $720 bn by 2030 to help world’s poorest with climate damages, new report finds.   A tax on the extraction of fossil fuels in the world’s richest advanced economies could raise $720 billion by the end of the decade to support the world’s most vulnerable facing climate damages, a new report has revealed.   ‘The Climate Damages Tax’ report is backed by over 100 climate organisations worldwide including Greenpeace, Stamp Out Poverty, Power Shift Africa and Christian Aid. It proposes that OECD countries, in particular members of the G7, lead in introducing a fee per tonne of CO2 embedded (CO2e) within the domestic extraction of coal, oil and gas.   The report argues for the bulk of the proceeds (80%) to be transferred to the newly established Loss and Damage Fund for assisting developing countries in their response to climate losses and damages. However, 20% – equating to $180 billion by 2030 – could be reserved as a ‘domestic dividend’ to support communities with the climate transition in countries where the tax is imposed.   The tax could be easily administered within existing systems of royalty payments or similar that fossil fuel companies already have to pay in the states where they operate.   The Loss and Damage Fund was operationalised by world leaders at COP28 in Dubai, but the $700 million pledged so far has been estimated to equate to less than 0.2% of the irreversible economic and non-economic losses developing countries are facing from global heating every year.   A significant proportion of global emissions can be attributed to a small number of fossil fuel producers, who have avoided paying for the rapidly growing costs of intensifying climate impacts even while their profits have skyrocketed.   The report’s publication coincides with the first meeting of the newly-established Loss and Damage Fund Board, who are gathering in Abu Dhabi tomorrow to discuss how the fund will be financed.   As well as generating much-needed funds to help countries least responsible for the climate crisis cope with the costs, the tax would help accelerate the phase out of fossil fuels by making their production more expensive through progressively ratcheting up the proposed tax rate each year.   Equally, the proposed domestic dividend would ensure that workers and communities in developed countries also reap benefits from the tax to ensure a just transition towards renewable energy and other green infrastructure.   If introduced in OECD countries in 2024 at a low initial rate of $5 per tonne of CO2e increasing by $5 per tonne each year, the tax would raise a total of $900 billion by 2030, equating to $720 billion for the Loss and Damage Fund and a $180 billion domestic dividend.   Areeba Hamid, a joint director at Greenpeace UK, said governments could no longer sit back and let ordinary people pick up the bill for the climate crisis while “oil bosses line their pockets and cash in on high energy prices”.   “We need concerted global leadership to force the fossil fuel industry to stop drilling and start paying for the damage they are causing around the world. A climate damages tax would be a powerful tool to help achieve both aims: unlocking hundreds of billions of funding for those at the sharp end of the climate crisis while helping accelerate a rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels around the world.”   The world has seen the devastating effects of the climate emergency, from crippling drought in Africa to deadly floods in Pakistan and Afghanistan.   Hamid added: “Extreme weather is claiming lives and causing catastrophic damage around the world. But while communities that have contributed least to the crisis find themselves on its frontlines, and households across Europe struggle with sky-high energy bills, the fossil fuel industry continues to rake in massive profits with no accountability for its historic and ongoing impact on our climate.”   http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/taxing-fossil-fuel-giants-could-raise-720-bn-by-2030-to-help-worlds-poorest-with-climate-damages-new-report-finds/ http://tinyurl.com/3bbbhj29 http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/29/taxing-big-fossil-fuel-firms-raise-billions-climate-finance   Mar. 2024   The urgent need for a child-centred Loss and Damage Fund, by Cristina Coloon, Lucy Szaboova. (UNICEF, agencies)   The world’s most marginalised children are already suffering the unavoidable impacts of climate change – death, displacement, malnutrition, the loss of education, and the destruction of traditional ways of life. These consequences are collectively known as climate-related loss and damage.   Since children have their whole lives ahead of them, such losses or damages suffered at an early age can lead to a lifetime of lost opportunity and can even affect future generations. That makes loss and damage related to climate change one of the greatest intergenerational injustices facing children today, threatening the rights enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child – such as the rights to survive and thrive, to protection, to clean water and food, to education and health, and to cultural heritage and indigenous knowledge.   Children have contributed the least to the climate crisis, yet they are suffering from its impacts more acutely than any previous generation.   The world has looked to climate finance to compensate those who have suffered the most due to climate change. Unfortunately, children’s unique needs and concerns have been largely overlooked in climate finance debates, a trend also reflected in climate finance allocations.   In 2022, nations agreed to set up a dedicated Loss and Damage Fund (L&D Fund), which is not only a significant milestone in climate negotiations, but also a chance to learn from past experiences of financing climate action. In fact, it is an opportunity to deliver climate justice for children on the frontline of the climate crisis.   Children’s first-hand accounts corroborate that climate-related loss and damage is part of their everyday realities. In a new report, Loss and Damage Finance for Children, 55 children, aged between 11 and 18, from diverse geographies share their experiences of loss and damage and recount memories of missing out on schooling, the loss or damage to their family home or livelihood, and even the loss of friends and family.   The children who shared with us their experiences unanimously demanded a seat at the table where discussions and decisions about loss and damage finance allocations take place. Their experiences and words make it clear that putting children’s rights at the heart of loss and damage finance is a matter of climate justice.   While the COP28 decision to launch the new L&D Fund recognizes youth as key stakeholders to participate in and shape the design, development and implementation of activities financed by the Fund, it only mentions children twice. To date, less than 2.4 per cent of climate finance has gone towards projects incorporating activities responsive to children’s needs.   At the same time, the way climate finance works now is pushing the countries most affected by the climate crisis into a debt crisis. When countries vulnerable to climate change are locked into a vicious cycle of indebtedness, with debt accumulating in tandem with accelerating losses and damages, compromises in public spending on essential services like education and healthcare often become inevitable. This has dire implications for children’s well-being and development.   It is important that the new L&D Fund, and loss and damage finance more broadly, break away from existing climate finance approaches.   The L&D Fund is a chance to ensure that present and future generations of children can thrive and fully exercise their rights. But this requires:   Recognizing children’s unique needs and vulnerabilities; facilitating their participation in decisions about the allocation and use of funding; ensuring the equitable distribution of loss and damage finance; and restoring children’s dignity when losses and damages are unavoidable.   Above all, it requires funding – sufficient, equitable, accessible and sustainable resources for meaningfully addressing the losses and damages suffered by children and their families.   It is crucial then that children’s rights are elevated, and their voices are amplified in discussions about implementing the L&D Fund as well as in setting the new global goal on climate finance. It is essential that this goal – called the New Common Quantified Goal – not only recognizes loss and damage as a critical pillar of climate finance, but that it is informed by the needs of climate-vulnerable children. We must not miss this opportunity to deliver climate justice for children.   * Cristina Coloon is Policy Specialist, UNICEF Innocenti; Lucy Szaboova is Climate Change and Environment Research Fellow, University of Exeter.   # Read the report Loss and Damage Finance for Children by UNICEF, Save the Children, Plan International, the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition (LDYC).   http://www.unicef.org/blog/urgent-need-child-centred-loss-and-damage-fund http://www.unicef.org/innocenti/reports/loss-and-damage-finance-children http://www.endchildhoodpoverty.org/publications-feed/climatechange http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/2024/05/policy-brief-social-protection-for-climate-justice-why-and-how/   Feb. 2024   Amnesty International is urging the rapid capitalization of the international Loss and Damage Fund meant to remedy the harms faced by communities most severely affected by climate change.   Following the hottest year ever recorded globally the need for action is acute, delays to act swiftly on an agreement at the COP climate summit in November to press ahead and deliver a working Loss and Damage Fund, threatens to undermine the human rights of communities which desperately need resources to deal with the impacts of climate change.   “The full operationalization of an adequately financed Loss and Damage Fund is potentially a matter of life or death for millions of people around the world facing the most severe consequences of global warming, such as droughts, floods, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, desertification and loss of livelihoods. Any delays to the disbursement of funds at the scale needed threaten the rights of people most affected by the increasing weather extremes and environmental degradation caused by our heating climate,” said Ann Harrison, Climate Justice Advisor at Amnesty International.   In joint open letter to the Board of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage ahead of its second meeting in July 2024, signed by over 350 civil society organizations including Amnesty International, the group expresses the strong expectation and demand to have a dedicated community access window established within the Loss and Damage Fund that realizes direct access for people most affected by compounding and cascading climate impacts, in particular frontline communities, Indigenous Peoples, and people experiencing marginalization.   Such a dedicated window should ensure simplified and enhanced direct access to adequate funding support in the form of small grants that addresses the needs and priorities of those affected, and that their leadership and knowledge is recognized and fostered.   http://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ior40/8370/2024/en/ http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/04/global-g7-phase-out-of-coal-power-must-come-faster-to-protect-those-on-the-frontline-of-the-climate-crisis/ http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/01/global-hottest-year-on-record-underlines-severity-of-the-climate-crisis/ http://climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-2023-hottest-year-record http://wmo.int/media/news/wmo-confirms-2023-smashes-global-temperature-record http://wmo.int/news/media-centre/rate-and-impact-of-climate-change-surges-dramatically-2011-2020 http://www.climatecentre.org/wp-content/uploads/RCCC-TEG-CRM-Key-Findings-Related-to-losses-and-damage_WIM-ExCom-V3.pdf   Dec. 2023   Climate-related extreme weather events are happening all over the world with the poorest and most marginalized the worst impacted.   Countries and communities, disproportionately those in the developing world, are being severly impacted by floods, droughts and cyclones, and suffering the consequences of a steady sea-level rise.   They are paying the price of the rich historical emitters and those who continue to expand fossil fuels, further exacerbating the crisis.   The writing is on the wall, countries have gone past the point where adaptation alone can arrest the climate impacts. Losses and damages are happening with ever growing economic and non-economic costs.   The unfortunate reality is all of this is expected to worsen because collective efforts to limit global warming are falling short.   This means that development in the global South will be further eroded, and its people, who are least responsible for the crisis, will bear the brunt of it — through displacement, loss of infrastructure, lives, and livelihoods.   Countries and communities incurring significant costs associated with climate change-induced loss and damage need and deserve as a matter of justice urgent financial support.   The world can no longer afford to delay in assisting developing countries and communities experiencing catastrophic losses and damages from climate events.   Loss and Damage Fund adopted at opening plenary of COP28 (agencies)   Delegates meeting in Dubai at the COP28 climate talks have agreed on the operationalization of a loss and damage fund intended to help compensate vulnerable countries cope with loss and damage caused by climate change.   UN Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the agreement to operationalize the fund calling it an essential tool to deliver climate justice. He urged leaders to support the fund.   The fund has been a long-standing demand of developing nations on the frontlines of climate change coping with the ever increasing costs of the devastation caused by increasingly extreme weather events such as drought, floods, and rising seas.   The cost of loss and damage for developing countries is projected to reach $400 billion per year by 2030.   Following the agreement, a handful of countries promised contributions to the start-up phase of the fund. Germany and the United Arab Emirates committed $100 million each, followed by the United Kingdom ($50.5m), the United States ($17.5m) and Japan ($10m). EU member states, including Germany, are expected to collectively deliver at least $245m.   The relatively paltry contribution from the US – the world’s largest economy – attracted immediate criticism. Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, called it “embarrassing".   Significantly more money will be needed to help vulnerable communities benefit from the new mechanism once it gets up and running. The fund is designed to receive contributions “from a wide variety of sources”, including grants and cheap loans from the public and private sectors, and “innovative sources”.   “Innovative sources” of finance could mean taxes on fossil fuels and financial transactions, carbon taxes on international aviation or shipping and the like. France and Kenya are set to launch a coalition at Cop28 to further develop options.   The World Bank is set to initially host the fund for four years, despite strong resistance to its involvement from developing countries and non government agencies. Developing countries have opposed the role for the World Bank, raising concerns over high costs, slow procedures and the predominant US influence on the institution. They grudgingly accepted the compromise to progress the fund, with certain conditions attached to World Bank involvement and a phase out/review of the role of the bank after four years.   All developing countries “particularly vulnerable” to the effects of climate change will be eligible to benefit from the mechanism. However, the definition of vulnerability is not detailed in the text.   Developed nations have sought to broaden the pool of donors expected to contribute to the fund, but have made limited headway. The text “urges” developed countries to provide financial resources to the fund, while other nations are only “encouraged” to do so “on a voluntary basis”.   The EU climate chief, Wopke Hoekstra, said China and petrostates like the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar should pay into the fund. Others want to broaden the donor base to countries with high-emitting economies categorised by the UN as developing nations like South Korea and Russia.   Civil society experts have said much more work lies ahead and, ultimately, the success of the fund will depend on how much money it is equipped with. The cost of loss and damage for developing countries is projected to reach $400 billion per year by 2030.   “Although rules have been agreed regarding how the fund will operate there are no hard deadlines, no targets and countries are not obligated to pay into it,” said Adow. “The most pressing issue now is to get money flowing into the fund and to the people that need it.”   Civil Society reactions: Loss and Damage Fund adopted at COP28   Harjeet Singh, Head of Global Political Strategy, Climate Action Network International:   “Amid the historic decision to operationalise the Loss and Damage Fund within a year of its establishment, addressing underlying concerns becomes critical. On one hand, rich countries have pushed for the World Bank to host this Fund under the guise of ensuring a speedy response. Conversely, they have attempted to dilute their financial obligations and resisted defining a clear finance mobilisation scale.   “The absence of a defined replenishment cycle raises serious questions about the Fund’s long-term sustainability. Therefore, a robust system, particularly integrated with the Global Stocktake process and the new climate finance goal, is needed to ensure that COP28 results in a meaningful outcome.   “The responsibility now lies with affluent nations to meet their financial obligations in a manner proportionate to their role in the climate crisis, which has been primarily driven by decades of unrestrained fossil fuel consumption and a lack of adequate climate finance delivered to the Global South.”   Tasneem Essop, Executive Director, Climate Action Network:   “A key issue to be addressed head on at this COP is that it delivers an outcome that deals with the need to justly and equitably phase out fossil fuels. We have had a record breaking year of global climate impacts and a number of alarming reports telling us that we are going in the wrong direction".   Rachel Cleetus, policy director and lead economist for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, highlighted that we are in the midst of a climate crisis falling disproportionately on marginalised and disadvantaged people:   “The consensus recommendations for operationalizing the Loss and Damage Fund are far from perfect yet are an important step forward and should be quickly adopted at COP28. Richer nations–including the United States–must also live up to their responsibility and provide robust resources for the Fund. The needs are immense and crushing for low- and middle-income nations already reeling from billions of dollars of damages and an immense human toll from extreme climate impacts. Moving this agreement forward expeditiously will also create the space for addressing other pressing issues, including the phase out of fossil fuels which are the root cause of climate change and loss and damage.”   Andreas Sieber, Associate Director of Policy at 350.org:   “We welcome the fund, but rich countries were quick in trying to marginalize the fund by setting a very low bar for contributions. The needs of affected communities are in the hundreds of billions, not millions. This can only be the start and must be urgently followed up with significantly increased pledges.”   Landry Ninteretse Africa Director 350.org:   “The step towards operationalizing the Loss and Damage fund is a promising start to the climate talks. The urgency of the climate crisis requires that we move with speed to translate this to action and work towards the delivery of financing to communities that continue to bear the brunt of the climate crisis in the most climate-vulnerable regions. It is time for big polluters in line with their historic emissions to pay up to deliver justice to those disproportionately affected by their reliance on fossil fuels.”   Joseph Sikulu, 350.org Pacific Director:   “For a region that has already seen so much destruction due to the climate crisis, the Loss and Damage fund is crucial to ensuring our communities can move through this world with dignity. So many of our voices, leaders, and negotiators continue to fight to ensure this fund is operationalized quickly and effectively. We celebrate today’s win, but there is an elephant in the room, without a commitment to phase out fossil fuels this is an open chasm, more fossil fuels means more loss and damage. Unless high emitting nations also commit to a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels at COP28, the Loss and Damage fund will be blood money, paying for the destruction of our islands.”   Ani Dasgupta, President & CEO, World Resources Institute:   “The loss and damage fund will be a lifeline to people in their darkest hour, enabling families to rebuild their homes after disaster strikes, support farmers when their crops are wiped out and relocate those that become permanently displaced by rising seas. This outcome was hard-fought but is a clear step forward.   “The success of this fund will depend on the speed and scale at which funds start flowing to people in need. We call on world leaders to announce substantial contributions at Cop28 – not only to cover start-up costs but also to fill the fund itself. People in vulnerable countries will face up to $580bn in climate-related damages in 2030 and this number will only continue to grow.”   Fanny Petitbon, head of advocacy for Care France:   “Today is a landmark day for climate justice, but clearly not the end of the fight. We hope the agreement will result in rapid delivery of support for communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis. However, it has many shortcomings. It enables historical emitters to evade their responsibility. It also fails to establish the scale of finance needed and ensure that the fund is anchored in human rights principles.   “The loss and damage fund must not remain an empty promise. We urgently call on all governments who are most responsible for the climate emergency and have the capacity to contribute to announce significant pledges in the form of grants. Historical emitters must lead the way. Financial commitments must not be about robbing Peter to pay Paul: funding must be new and additional.”   Mariana Paoli, Christian Aid’s global advocacy lead:   “The fact that the World Bank is to be the interim host of the fund is a worry for developing countries. It needs to be closely scrutinised to ensure vulnerable communities are able to get easy and direct access to funds and the whole operation is run with far more transparency than the World Bank normally operates on. These were the conditions agreed by countries and if they are not kept to, a separate arrangement will be needed.   “It’s now vital we see the fund filled. People who have contributed the least to the climate crisis are already suffering climate losses and damages. The longer they are forced to wait for financial support to cover these costs, the greater the injustice. At Cop28 we need to see significant new and additional pledges of money to the loss and damage fund, and not just repackaged climate finance that has already been committed.”   http://climatenetwork.org/2023/11/30/historic-loss-and-damage-fund-adopted-at-opening-plenary-of-cop28/ http://350.org/press-release/cop28-350-org-responds-to-agreement-for-loss-and-damage-fund/ http://news.un.org/en/story/2023/11/1144162 http://wmo.int/news/media-centre/2023-shatters-climate-records-major-impacts http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/2023/12/cop28-global-coalition-for-social-protection-floors-calls-for-building-social-protection-systems-to-deal-with-loss-and-damage/ http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/11/global-initial-pledges-at-cop28-to-finance-the-loss-damage-fund-fall-far-short-of-what-is-needed/ http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/new-climate-and-tax-taskforce-must-make-rich-polluters-pay http://thebulletin.org/2023/12/cop28-creates-fund-for-vulnerable-countries-for-loss-and-damage-from-climate-change-but-will-it-reach-vulnerable-people/ http://sites.udel.edu/climatechangehub/rising-global-economic-lossdamage-report2023/   Oct. 2023   170 Humanitarian, Climate and Development organisations issue a joint call to demand Loss and Damage Funding:   In an era marked by the increasingly palpable ramifications of climate change, the interplay between its impacts and humanitarian crises has intensified.   Marginalised and vulnerable communities in the developing countries, despite their minimal contribution to climate adversities, find themselves grappling not only with the direct climatic and environmental consequences of climate change but also with a myriad of pre-existing humanitarian and developmental challenges.   These communities are also confronting both historical and systemic inequalities, underscoring the urgent need for climate justice.   At COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in 2022, a landmark agreement was forged, establishing a fund and funding arrangements to provide crucial financial support to address loss and damage.   We are witnessing and enduring the repercussions of human-induced climate change everywhere, yet the impacts are disproportionately burdening those least responsible for causing the climate crisis, and it is only poised to worsen.   The scale, frequency, and duration of climate-related extreme weather events are escalating, presenting new challenges due to slow onset processes such as sea level rise, loss of biodiversity, and the accelerating pace of desertification, all of which demand attention.   While communities, domestic responders, and humanitarians are at the frontlines of this crisis, the overwhelming and escalating needs far surpass their capacities to absorb and recover from shocks. Moreover, the existing humanitarian financing system is ill-equipped to adequately respond to multiple and compounding climate impacts.   To address both economic and non-economic loss and damage arising from slow-onset processes and rapid-onset events, there is a need for a substantial increase in finance and in national capacities, through the Loss and Damage Fund, which can be accessed by countries and communities promptly.   This is crucial to prevent communities from unjustly suffering the current, immediate, and prolonged ill-effects of human-induced climate change. Consequently, additional resources are essential to address loss and damage.   We are joining together to support the urgent calls for loss and damage finance under the UNFCCC based on four priorities: access, adequacy, additionality, and accountability.   Access: All developing countries necessitate and are entitled to loss and damage finance based on the principles of equity, justice and human rights. Special attention must be accorded to ensure that particularly marginalised and climate-vulnerable communities and individuals, on the frontline today and in the future, are able to access the loss and damage finance they need, as directly as possible.   This must align with Grand Bargain commitments on localisation. Access should also be flexible, multi-year, timely, transparent, equitable and administratively light in the context of rapid-onset and slow-onset impacts.   Adequacy: Climate change is indisputably costly, with the annual costs already amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars in developing countries. As the frequency, scale, and duration of climate-induced extreme weather events and impacts of slow-onset events escalate, more and more people will continue to be affected in ways that surpass their capacity to fully recover from these recurrent calamities.   Therefore, substantial financial resources are not merely desirable; they are essential. This includes fulfilling commitments for new and additional climate finance and addressing the shortfall in humanitarian finance. It is crucial that loss and damage finance is appropriately scaled to fully cover both the economic and non-economic costs of rehabilitation and reconstruction for affected communities.   As climate threats escalate, prioritising substantial, timely, and accessible funding to support those most vulnerable to climate change is more than a moral duty – it’s an existential imperative.   Governments must unite to formally establish and provide adequate funding for a Loss and Damage Facility for communities unjustly affected by climate change. We stand in solidarity with them, unified as humanitarian, development, peace, human rights, and climate communities in our urgent call.   http://climatenetwork.org/2023/10/12/humanitarian-climate-and-development-organisations-issue-a-joint-call-to-demand-the-loss-and-damage-fund/ http://caneurope.org/content/uploads/2023/10/Public-sources-climate-finance-loss-and-damage.pdf http://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-the-fight-over-the-loss-and-damage-fund-for-climate-change/ http://unctad.org/publication/taking-responsibility-towards-fit-purpose-loss-and-damage-fund http://www.unocha.org/roadmap-cop28 http://climateanalytics.org/press-releases/oil-and-gas-majors-could-have-paid-for-their-share-of-climate-loss-and-damage-and-still-earned-10-trillion-usd-new-report   http://climatenetwork.org/2023/08/29/new-loss-and-damage-fund-must-deliver-climate-justice/ http://www.iied.org/tackling-loss-damage-vulnerable-countries-improving-evidence-co-generating-pathways-impact http://www.iied.org/21891iied http://www.lossanddamagecollaboration.org/publication/the-loss-and-damage-finance-landscape http://taxonslessuperprofits.carefrance.org/en/ http://www.escr-net.org/news/2023/addressing-loss-and-damage-our-call-accountability-and-justice http://www.ciel.org/loss-and-damage-fund-tc1/ http://www.lossanddamagecollaboration.org/link-page/loss-and-damage-collaboration-l-dc-master-document-for-cop-28   http://larutadelclima.org/english/reparations/ http://www.germanclimatefinance.de/2023/11/29/making-the-loss-and-damage-fund-operational-and-adequately-equipped-key-tasks-for-cop28/ http://climateanalytics.org/comment/safeguards-and-exit-points-for-the-world-bank-as-host-of-the-loss-and-damage-fund http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/29/why-loss-and-damage-funds-are-key-to-climate-justice-for-developing-countries-at-cop28 http://www.context.news/climate-justice/opinion/community-voices-are-essential-for-a-just-loss-and-damage-fund http://genevasolutions.news/climate-environment/why-loss-damage-fund-alone-will-not-redress-climate-harm http://www.context.news/climate-justice/opinion/its-time-to-put-our-money-where-our-mouths-are http://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/climate-loss-damage-fund-the-furthest-thing-imaginable-from-a-success/   Dec. 2022   Rich nations can afford to pay their fair share to fix global crises, by Lidy Nacpil, Thuli Makama. (Thompson Reuters Foundation)   Will rich countries pay international climate reparations? Vanuatu first asked this question in 1991, and by 2013 the U.S. response was still a firm no. As State Department Climate Envoy Todd Stern put it, “The fiscal reality of the United States and other developed countries is not going to allow it.”   Throughout most of 2022, Stern’s successor John Kerry had a nearly identical response, saying, “there is not enough money in any country in the world to actually solve climate change. It takes trillions and no government that I know of is ready to put trillions into this." His counterparts in other wealthy governments held similar positions.   But the COP27 climate summit in November forced a change of script. Channelling frustration with the uneven impacts of the last few years of the pandemic, climate chaos and the energy crisis, Global South social movements made this the summit’s headline issue.   This helped cement unprecedented unity among the developing-country negotiating bloc and forced wealthy countries to agree to establish a ‘loss and damage’ fund to address escalating climate impacts. It was an important breakthrough in an otherwise disappointing summit, in which language on a just fossil-fuel phase out - notably the most critical measure to limit the amount of loss and damage - was excluded from the final text.   There is still a struggle ahead to ensure that rich nations fill this new fund with anything near their fair share of what is needed to respond to climate disasters. What is not in question is whether they can afford to.   Wealthy governments control international financial systems and their domestic economies. We saw them make trillions of dollars in fiscal space available for bank bailouts in 2008 and for COVID-19 responses since 2020. And each year, they find trillions for militaries and fossil fuel subsidies. It is in this context that proposals to redistribute significant public funding to address overlapping global crises are gaining momentum.   The first is making fossil fuel companies pay. While many households were pushed into poverty this year, oil and gas companies made record profits and governments continued to subsidise them. Ending fossil fuel subsidies would raise at least $600 billion a year, and a 10% tax hike on oil and gas production about $400 billion in 2022. Along these lines, the EU and UK among others have introduced windfall taxes on oil and gas profits, and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and small island governments are calling for part of these to be levied toward the loss and damage fund.   There is also momentum to shift a particularly influential form of fossil subsidy - international public finance - towards renewable energy instead.   Second, a small tax on extreme wealth would raise $2.5 trillion a year, and related proposals to crack down on tax dodging would significantly bolster this. Because the world’s richest 1% have caused 23% of greenhouse gas emissions growth since 1990, these measures are also needed to reach climate targets.   In a push that mirrored the loss and damage win, last week African countries secured a key step towards these reforms by passing a resolution for the U.N. to hold its own intergovernmental talks on tax rules rather than them remaining the sole domain of the OECD.   Calls to cancel Global South countries’ sovereign debts predate the climate crisis but are intensifying with it. Campaigners brought these asks to COP27, pointing out that low-income countries are forced to pay wealthier countries the initial $100 billion a year they have been promised in climate finance many times over in debt service payments.   The economic volatility of the last few years has compounded debts in many countries, preventing public spending on basic needs, let alone climate action. In response, some governments and agencies are finally making serious debt proposals like cancelling $100 billion a year for the next decade.   Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s popular Bridgetown Agenda to tackle debt and climate has components of these proposals, as well as an ask for the International Monetary Fund to inject at least $650-billion worth of reserve assets into struggling economies annually through Special Drawing Rights. Together, these modest proposals add up to well over $3.7 trillion a year.   * Lidy Nacpil is coordinator of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) and Thuli Makama is Oil Change International’s Africa Director.   http://www.context.news/climate-justice/opinion/rich-nations-can-afford-to-pay-fair-share-to-fix-global-crises http://inweh.unu.edu/opinion-cop-27-a-global-cop-out/ http://geopolitique.eu/en/articles/breaking-the-deadlock-on-climate-the-bridgetown-initiative/ http://www.unocha.org/news/loss-and-damage-fund-last-win-details http://actionaid.org/news/2023/new-loss-and-damage-fund-must-deliver-equitable-outcome-climate-ravaged-countries-says http://www.sei.org/publications/finance-loss-damage-principles-modalities/ http://www.gi-escr.org/publications/white-paper-loss-and-damage-the-missing-piece-international-tax-cooperation-for-new-climate-finance http://wid.world/news-article/climate-inequality-report-2023-fair-taxes-for-a-sustainable-future-in-the-global-south/ http://mediacentre.christianaid.org.uk/new-report-top-10-climate-disasters-cost-the-world-billions-in-2022/ http://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/tropical-cyclone-freddy-may-set-new-record http://theconversation.com/au/topics/loss-and-damage-23218 http://www.un.org/en/climatechange/adelle-thomas-loss-and-damage   Oct. 2022   Climate change the greatest threat the world has ever faced, UN expert warns. (OHCHR)   Human-induced climate change is the largest, most pervasive threat to the natural environment and societies the world has ever experienced, and the poorest countries are paying the heaviest price, a UN expert said.   “Throughout the world, human rights are being negatively impacted and violated as a consequence of climate change. This includes the right to life, health, food, development, self-determination, water and sanitation, work, adequate housing and freedom from violence, trafficking and slavery,” said Ian Fry, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, in a report to the General Assembly.   “There is an enormous injustice being manifested by developed economies against the poorest and least able to cope. Inaction by developed economies and major corporations to take responsibility for drastically reducing their greenhouse gas emissions has led to demands for ‘climate reparations’ for losses incurred. The G20 members for instance, account for 78 per cent of emissions over the last decade.”   The Special Rapporteur’s report focuses on the topics of mitigation action, loss and damage, access and inclusion, and the protection of climate rights defenders.   “The overall effect of inadequate actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is creating a human rights catastrophe, and the costs of these climate change related disasters are enormous,” Fry said.   Those most affected and suffering the greatest losses are the least able to participate in current decision-making and more must be done to ensure they have a say in their future, including children and youth, women, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and minorities.   Fry also raised deep concern about climate rights defenders. “As groups and communities become increasingly frustrated with the lack of action on climate change, they have turned to protests and public interventions to bear witnesses to the climate emergency. Sadly, we are seeing many climate rights defenders persecuted by governments and security organisations. Some defenders have even been killed.”   The expert emphasised that indigenous peoples, in particular, have been the target of serious attacks and human rights abuses.   Fry presented several recommendations to the General Assembly, including the establishment of a consultative group of finance experts to define the modalities and rules for the operation of a Loss and Damage Finance Facility, and a climate change redress and grievance mechanism to allow vulnerable communities to seek recourse for damages incurred.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a77226-promotion-and-protection-human-rights-context-climate-change http://www.lossanddamagecollaboration.org/publication/cost-of-delay-why-finance-to-address-loss-and-damage-must-be-agreed-at-cop27 http://thecvf.org/tag/loss-and-damage/ http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/189-million-people-year-affected-extreme-weather-developing-countries-rich-countries
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