The Loss and Damage Fund, a funding mechanism to compensate vulnerable nations for climate-induced disasters, is expected to be operational within two years, even as climate change activists have raised concerns over the operational plan of the fund.
The agreement to compensate vulnerable nations was made after days of intense negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt at the UN Climate Change Conference, COP27.
The plenary session approved the document’s provision to establish a ‘loss and damage’ fund to help developing countries bear the immediate costs of climate-fueled events such as storms and floods.
However, climate change activists are concern that the loss and damage funding is heavily dependent on developed countries whose financial commitments to the adaptation fund are still lacking.
For instance, the director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey, at a media briefing, organised by Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), in Lagos, recalled that in 2009, rich countries pledged $100 billion to support developing countries but there have not been a transparent report showing accountability of the finance.
Bassey, who attended the COP 27, however. advised that, developing nations should insist that those responsible for climate change should not just pay for loss and damage but should establish historical accountability.
“There should be strict responsibility and accountability of those operating industries,” he added.
The executive director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Barr. Chima Williams, said, the issues that transpired at COP27 calls for concern, adding that it showed unseriousness of partners involved. He was of the strong opinion that strategic litigation was a major way to hold fossil company liable.
Williams said, “Issues of remediation were not discussed and following the recent flood incidents in Nigeria, if we depend on COP and its decisions, we will continue to experience doom. For the Loss and damage fund, questions should be raised on what constitutes it, who is paying, what should they pay, who receives it and when should it be received.”
On his part, the director of programmes, CAPPA, Philip Jakpor, gave reference to last COP report on accountability, revealing that, many fossils industry lobbied in making sure they weren’t held liable for climate crises, while calling for the need to make plans to help developing nations fight climate change.
