Protesters in Glasgow during the COP26 summit.
Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images
- Governments around the world are seeking to reach agreement on how to help poorer countries on the issue of climate change.
- This is the time for world leaders to continue their deliberations at the COP26 forum.
- The event is being held in Glasgow.
Governments will push for consensus on Monday on how to help the most vulnerable countries cope with global warming and make up for the damage that has already been done. This is a test of whether developing and rich countries can end the stalemate that has been trapped by climate change cash for many years.
At the beginning of the second and final week of the United Nations climate negotiations in Glasgow, ministers were trying to fulfill their promises to pay for climate-related losses and damages and to resolve the issue of how to help countries adapt to the impact of climate change.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tuvalu, Simon Kofe, will vividly demonstrate how rising sea levels affect his small island nation through a taped speech.
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“Due to the impact of climate change and rising sea levels, the statement aligns the setting of COP26 with the reality of Tuvalu,” Kofi said from a podium on the coast of the Pacific Islands. The speech will be broadcast at the Glasgow conference on Tuesday.
The UK, which hosts the COP26 conference, tried to speed up the pace on Monday by announcing new funding of 290 million pounds (391 million US dollars), which includes supporting Asia-Pacific countries in responding to the effects of global warming.
It stated that these funds are in addition to the “billions of additional international funds” already pledged by rich countries such as Denmark, Japan and the United States for the adaptation and recovery of fragile countries, many of which have experienced the worst effects of climate change.
“We must act now to stop climate change from driving more people into poverty. We know that climate impacts have a disproportionate impact on those who are already the most vulnerable,” Anne, appointed by the British government to focus on adaptation and resilience- Mary Trevelyan said.
The Environment Minister of Ghana, Kwaku Afriyie, stated that the negotiations did not reflect the publicly expressed ambitions of developed countries.
“This is indeed very unfortunate and sad,” he said.
Priority
Although developing countries need more funds to help them adapt to the high temperatures that cause droughts, floods and wildfires more frequently, developed countries have been focusing on funding to reduce emissions.
The cost of both is huge.
Citing academic research, the Heinrich Boll Foundation stated that by 2030, the economic costs of expected losses and damages in developing countries will be between 400 billion and 580 billion U.S. dollars per year, and will reach 1.8 trillion U.S. dollars by 2050.
Makerusa Porotesano, a member of the Marshall Islands delegation, stated that the way to limit the amount of funds needed to help islands at risk of rising sea levels is to control global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) or less.
“We are not optimistic. We are here to fight for our island,” he said.
In addition to the 1.5C level that the Glasgow talks aim to maintain, the world is also at risk of devastating climate impacts.
The richer countries need to show that they can deliver on many of the promises they made during the first week of the talks, which are scheduled to end on Friday.
Developing countries are very vigilant. At the United Nations Climate Summit held in Copenhagen 12 years ago, rich countries pledged to provide developing countries with US$100 billion a year by 2020 to help them adapt to climate change.
This goal has not been achieved. On COP26, richer countries stated that they will achieve this goal by 2023 at the latest. Some people hope that it can be achieved one year in advance.
For rich countries, the potential more problem is how they should compensate for the losses and damages caused by historical emissions in the underdeveloped countries. No specific commitments have been made in this area.
Emily Bohobo N’Dombaxe Dola is the coordinator of the official youth constituency adaptation working group of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. She said that after seeing how climate change affects Senegal, she was attracted to take action.
She said in a statement: “It is time for governments and donors to strengthen fair financing and loss and damage and adaptation plans.”
