The Pacific island championing the region’s push for a Loss and Damage financing facility, Tuvalu, has applauded the renewed focus on the issue, calling on world leaders to reflect this commitment in the outcome of COP27.
Tuvalu’s Prime Minister, Hon. Kausea Natano, made the point when he addressed world leaders during the High-Level plenary of the 27th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (UNFCCC COP) in the city of Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on Tuesday.
“Tuvalu as the Pacific region’s champion for loss and damage urges an outcome of COP27 that delivers a secure, guaranteed Loss and Damage Financing facility, especially considering the urgency caused by climate change impacts, as reiterated by IPCC reports,” he said.
The call follows the decision to include the discussion on loss and damage finance on the COP Agenda for the first time on Sunday, which is a big step forward for advocates of a Loss and Damage Financing facility.
“If we do not make way headway in this COP, Tuvalu is quickly losing faith in this institution to deliver sustainable outcome that does not leave island communities and many of us behind,” the Prime Minister said. “The IPCC reports are science based and their narrative is clear and honest, and may I say, so also the experiences and realities of my country’s plight. Tuvalu and many islands are struggling to cope with sea level rise that exacerbates many other development challenges.”
But hope is not lost, and Tuvalu is doing what it can to fight for survival. For instance, the Prime Minister highlighted the island’s long-term adaptation plan called Te Lafiga. Informed by science, experience and best practice, Te Lafiga aims to accommodate Tuvalu’s population safely beyond the worst case of sea level rise beyond 2100. It also offers solutions to pre-existing development and resource-constraint issues, and hope for the future of Tuvaluans.
“Tuvalu is proactively seeking solutions and not sitting on its laurels by any imagination,” Hon. Natano said.
Tuvalu also called on COP27 to address the existing gaps in the legal infrastructure for dealing with climate change.
“As sea level rises, our population will be displaced from their homes, however climate change refugee is not covered under the categories of the Refugee Convention,” the Prime Minister said.
“Drowning islands and flooded nations require a reassertion of our basic human rights. Tuvalu and Marshall Islands have established a Rising Nation Initiative to commit the international community to preserving our sovereignty and basic human rights. These include inter alia the rights to life, health, food, water, livelihood, culture, privacy, home, life and property.”
On fossil fuel, Tuvalu called for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty to steer development to peruse renewable energy.
“Today’s climate emergency can be reduced to two basic concepts, time and temperature,” Hon. Natano said. “It is getting too hot and there is barely enough time to slow and reverse the increasing temperature. It is important to prioritise fast-acting strategies that avoid the most warming.”
The Tuvaluan Prime Minister also joined a growing chorus of world leaders demanding enhanced transparency for financial flows to mitigate and adapt to climate impacts, and to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.
“At each COP, Tuvalu is ever so encouraged by the good intentions and goodwill pronounced and announced through countries beautifully crafted speeches… but this said, we must always gauge our efforts by what is happening to our environment and to the people who are affected in the front line, and one begs
The 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP27) is being held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt from 6 to 18 November 2022.
It is being attended by Pacific leaders and their delegations, who are advocating for their survival. The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) is lead of the One CROP, working together to provide support to Pacific Islands.
MAIN PHOTO CREDIT: COP27 /UNClimateChange
