This year’s UN Climate Summit has come to a close — two weeks of negotiations where politicians discuss issues that will dictate the state of our planet and humanity. We have a victory that was only made possible by the people, but we need to ramp up pressure for our fight for 1.5 and to phaseout fossil fuels.
We have a historic victory as we walk away with a new #LossAndDamage Fund — something that grassroots movements and civil society have been fighting for for years. We saw how vulnerable countries came together to call for this much needed fund. The fight for #LossAndDamage finance is the fight to have the world recognize that the climate crisis is already here. It’s the recognition that so much has been lost and damaged by climate impacts and that needs to be addressed and paid reparations. Loss and damage finance could be the immediate relief that communities receive after a storm for food and livelihood, what’s used when homes and infrastructure are destroyed, hazard pay for workers, and compensation for lives that have been lost. This is for all the things we can no longer adapt to.
We need to make sure that it’s operationalized immediately and the definition of vulnerable countries is clarified and ensures the safety of the most marginalized. The fight continues to make sure that there’s actual finance and money that goes through this mechanism, as we’ve seen how other climate finance mechanisms have been ineffective because rich countries refuse to pay reparations at the scale that is needed and that they owe to us in the Global South.
Climate finance for adaptation and mitigation needs to increase and come in the form of grants, and not loans. Especially since the final decision from the summit weakens the call for more climate finance.
With the text having an even weaker stance on fossil fuels and not calling for a phase out for all fossil fuels, we will continue to see climate impacts worsen. Loss and damage will continue to increase if we do not have a complete fossil fuel phase out. This is crucial if we want to stick to the 1.5 degree Celsius limit. We need real, rapid emissions cuts. We need leaders to break from the fossil-fuel industry once and for all.
We saw how imperialist countries play with our lives as if it’s just words on paper. It’s the richest countries that continue to block progress on mitigation and continue to evade reparations.
Each decision created in these plenaries and meeting rooms will decide whether or not someone lives, whether or not a community drowns, whether or not a vulnerable country receives reparations for the injustice whether or not the billions already impacted are given their right to live a life with dignity.
#COP27 is only one moment in our life long fight for climate justice. We must keep fighting and fostering community as we build a better world where no one is left behind. #EndClimateImperialism
Photo by Marie Jacquemin
Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines 