Michelle Higelin, Executive Director of ActionAid Australia says:
“We welcome Australia’s pledge of $50 million to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage as an initial step in supporting communities on the frontlines rebuild and recover from climate in the wake of escalating climate disasters.
“We call on Australia to build on this pledge, by advocating for the inclusion of loss and damage in the new climate finance target being negotiated at COP29. The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage would be a lifeline for low-income countries that are bearing the brunt of climate chaos, but only if rich countries commit real and sustained funding.
“The only way to ensure the consistent and adequate delivery of loss and damage finance is to include a specific subgoal on loss and damage in the new climate finance target being negotiated at COP29. If loss and damage is excluded from the climate finance target there is a significant risk the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage will become an empty vessel, delivering pocket change, while the world’s poorest countries get pushed further into debt, poverty and insecurity with every new disaster.
Australia’s pledge to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage is critical first step but if the Government is truly committed to standing shoulder to shoulder with our Pacific neighbours, it must advocate for the inclusion of loss and damage in the new climate finance goal so that women on the frontlines have access to real money, not an empty fund.”
Current pledges to the fund amount to approximately US$809 million, yet estimates show that developing countries need a minimum of US$400 billion each year to address the loss and damage caused by climate disasters. In the Pacific, the costs from climate disasters have reached a staggering high of $7.3 billion in the last two years.
In the two years after Cyclone Pam devastated Vanuatu in 2015 the country’s debt grew from 21% to 39% of GDP, mainly due to loans for post-cyclone reconstruction. The average external debt of Small Island Developing States has now risen from 45.4% between 2007-2009 to 58.5% between 2020-2021.
[ENDS]
Michelle Higelin is available for interviews.
For further information please contact Steph Wulf: [email protected]
Figures sourced from the following resources:
Loss and Damage Collaboration and Heinrich Böll Stiftung Washington DC (2023) The Loss and Damage Finance Landscape.
Oxfam (2024) Escalating Emergencies: 20 years of Pacific Climate Disasters.
Debt Justice UK (2018) Don’t Owe, Shouldn’t Pay: The Impact of Climate Change on Debt in Vulnerable Countries.
IIED (2023) Sinking Islands, Rising Debts: Urgent Need for New Financial Compact in Small Island Developing States.
About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global women’s rights organisation working with women on the frontlines of injustice, so they can empower themselves to transform their communities. We work across 70 countries and represent a global movement of women standing together to claim their human rights and campaign against injustice.