Amanat Ali Chaudhary
THE 2023 Bonn Climate Conference (SB 58) held from the 5th to the 15th of June 2023 at the World Conference Center Bonn (WCCB), in Bonn, Germany.The conference concluded after two weeks of intensive work by Parties and civil society and with progress on several critical issues: Global stocktake, climate finance, Loss and Damage, Adaptation.
Issues relevant to Loss and Damage that have been undertaken at SB58 included: matters relating to the Santiago Network for Loss and Damage (SNLD), The Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement (GST), the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance (NCQG) and the Second Glasgow Dialogue on Loss and Damage which will inform the work of the Transitional Committee to provide recommendation on the Loss and Damage Fund and Funding arrangements at COP 28.
At COP 27 Parties reach the decision to establish a Loss and Damage Fund and Funding Arrangements. Whilst this historic achievement is a step in the right direction, it comes after thirty years of delays.
The findings of the IPCC’s AR6 report are clear, the adverse effects of anthropogenic climate change are already leading to losses and damages which will continue to escalate if a rapid phase out of all fossil fuels is not undertaken. In 2022, major climate and weather events in developing countries e.g. Pakistan Floods 2022, caused more than US$109 billion in losses, a figure that does not take into account smaller locally devastating events, slow onset impacts, or non-economic loss and damage. Whilst current, midpoint estimates of economic loss and damage in developing countries suggest costs of US$425 billion per year in 2020 and US$671 billion per year 2030.
What happened and where we are now on the road to COP28, here are some takeaways in the immediate aftermath of SB58 that saw the second Glasgow dialogue on Loss and Damage take place as well. This was to be the first Glasgow Dialogue since the establishment of Loss andDamage Fund at COP27 and the start of Transitional Committee meaning that expectations were high.Throughout the 2nd Glasgow Dialogue developing countries were consistent in their calls for a fit for purpose Loss and Damage fund under the financial mechanism of the UNFCCC covering the full spectrum of Loss and Damage at the scale of the needs and must be governed by the principle of Equity, Polluters pay and CBDR-RC, be gender responsive and capitalized at the scale of the needs and scaled up as the Climate Crisis escalates.
The Loss and Damage Fund being under the financial mechanism of the UNFCCC, governed by the COP and CMA is to work as stand-alone operating entity under UNFCCC, not aligned under any existing mechanism such as the GCF and the GEF or Adaptation finance.The developing countries see this as a public grant-based financing for Loss and Damage needs to be the primary source of funding for least developed and most vulnerable countries to ensure that debt burdens are not exacerbated further. The fund needs to be accessible to all developing countries because they are all facing Loss and Damage right now.
However, some developed countries emphasized over the roles for the World Bank, G7 and V20 Group’s global shield against climate risks. Attaching the Fund with these would mean giving powers to the contributors rather than UNFCCC under the principles and the developing countries. Developed countries kept on suggesting that the Santiago Network for Loss and Damage (SNLD) and the Global Shield could play coordinating roles for the Fund, which again would undermine the Fund. In fact, SNLD is yet to play its technical role for which it is originally mandated and not the coordinating roles for the Fund.
As the 2nd Glasgow dialogues summed up with confirmation that a synthesis report would be drawn up to inform the third meeting of the Transitional Committee (TC#) where work will continue to provide recommendations on the operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund at COP28.
On matters related to the SNLD for L&D, Parties met at SB58 with the aim of deciding who would host the secretariat of the SNLD either UNDRR or UNOPS or the Caribbean Development Bank.As the SB58 came to a close it was confirmed that Parties failed to reach an agreement on the issue of hosting SNLD.
The 3rd and final Technical Dialogue (TC1.3) of the Global stocktake of the Paris Agreement (GST) also took place at SB58, during which saw an agreement on cementing Loss and Damage into the first GST. The Sixth Technical Expert Dialogue (TED 6) on the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) took place on the 12th and 13th of June. According to the NCQG work plan, the focus of the next TED will be the stock take. There are expectation however that Loss and Damage will also be a significant part of those discussions in order to get a sense of where we are and where we need to get to as we prepare to opertionalise the Loss and Damage Fund.
Despite a number of barriers to participate, throughout the Bonn Climate Conference, civil society played a massive role in supporting and amplifying the Loss and Damage demands of developing countries across events. In terms of outcome and achievements out of the SB58, it seems the world has a long road and much to do in order to operationalize the decisions made at COP25,26, and 27. Current week, leaders gathered in Paris for Paris Summit which is hosted by President Emmanuel Macronalongwith Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados.There is likelihood that some headway will be made on developing elements of a New Global Finance Pact including finance for Loss and Damage and Debt Relief. This Global Finance Pact will be crucial for developing countries facing indebtedness by being forced to take loans to fund their own reconstruction following climate disasters – something which is immoral and unjust.
The present wave of disasters provides Pakistan with a chance to revisit our level of interest and devise a new engagement strategy. To begin with, Pakistan has a narrow window of opportunity to embed loss and damage in the third edition of its Nationally Determined Contribution and submit it to the UNFCCC Secretariat prior to COP-28 in November. It will help create a momentum for international support and solidarity with Pakistan. It is important now to recognize that under the adopted guidelines, it needs to establish Loss and Damage country mechanism with a data, knowledge hub for establishing a credible evidence base.
—The writer is climate governance expert and works for global development organizations in spheres of research, advisory, policy analysis and legislative reforms.
