CSOs demand pro-poor Green Climate Financing

The sixth meeting of the Green Climate Fund Board has been asked to take note of the devastating climate change impacts in developing economies and provide a climate fund which is pro-people.

The meeting is holding in Bali, Indonesia with expectations that it will deliver a Fund which will enable developing countries to deal with the impacts of climate change.

The delivery of climate finance for developing countries is one of the commitments and obligations of developed country governments under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and is one of the pillars of the Bali Road Map agreed during the UNFCCC Conference of Parties held in Bali in December 2007.

At a media forum dubbed the “Urgency of Climate Finance and the Green Climate Fund”, civil society groups from Africa, the Philippines and Indonesia presented cases of climate change impacts, loss and damage caused by extreme weather events.

It was organized by the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), Jubilee South Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development, Friends of the Earth Indonesia and Koalisi Anti Utang.

Citing the African Case, Robert Muthami from PACJA said that climate change impacts included prolonged droughts in the Horn and East Africa, the freak phenomena of floods in Mozambique, the Somali Puntland Hurricane in November 2013 which killed around 300 people, and the climate change–induced natural resources scarcity in the savanna belt of Africa that is giving rise to conflicts and severe food crisis. 

 

“Climate change is a justice issue and we can no longer treat it just as an economic issue. World leaders must put the wellbeing of people and the planet first, before their bank accounts,” he stated.

PACJA stresses that the Green Climate Fund must ensure transparency, openness, equity, easy access for local communities, country ownership and respond primarily to the needs of vulnerable communities.

Leo Lauzon, representing the Philippine Movement for Climate Change said that in November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines leaving more than 6,000 people dead, several million people displaced, and more than $879 million cost of damages to infrastructure and agriculture.

 

“Just last month, heavy rains drenched a huge portion of Indonesia causing massive flood, deadly landslides and more than 40,000 displaced individuals,” observed Oslan Purba, Friends of the Earth Indonesia.

The total cost of damage is estimated at $80 million.

Noting the urgency of the Green Climate Fund, Lidy Nacpil of the Jubilee South Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development, urged the developed country governments to confront their responsibilities for the climate crisis and carry out their obligations to the people of developing countries.

She said this should be done “through tangible sufficient financial commitments to the GCF that are not through loans or debt creating instruments and not through financing of the private sector”.

A joint statement was read at the media forum titled: “No More Deception! No More Excuses! Climate Finance Now! A Green Climate Fund for People and Planet and Not Private profit!”