ANKARA
The UN Bonn Climate Change Conference started in Germany on Monday.
“We cannot stress enough the need for predictable, adequate and accessible climate finance,” Evans Njewa, head of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group, said at a news conference on the first day of the conference.
Expressing his thoughts on the impacts of climate change and the Loss and Damage Fund, Njewa said: “We need to agree on a new core of climate finance and this goal should then match the scale of our needs in the group of the LDCs.”
The 45 LDC countries, with the majority of African countries, “are facing the adverse impacts of the climate change every day, day in and day out,” he said.
He gave the example of Malawi, which faced “a very devastating tropical cyclone Freddy” last year, saying that the country had lost “thousands of human lives as the infrastructure was heavily damaged, people got displaced, some even went missing.”
“I do recall similar cases,” Njewa said, referring to other natural disasters that took place in Nepal, Mozambique and Madagascar, and a few other countries in the world.
Support is needed to adapt to the inevitable consequences of climate change and to mitigate the unavoidable losses and damages incurred, he stressed.
Calling for simplified and accessible funding to address climate-related disasters, he said: “We've developed national adaptation plans, but we're facing a shortfall in funding, with needs in the trillions of dollars.”
The current $100 billion climate finance goal, he said, is not sufficient and added that the LDCs need a new framework that accurately addresses their needs and provides simplified and accessible finance.
Call for transparent and accountable arrangements
Anne Rasmussen, the lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), said that the group's main concern is the “erosion” of special considerations for vulnerable regions.
“For small islands, our vulnerability to climate change is inextricably linked to our sustainable development challenges,” Rasmussen said.
She said that they have been attending these climate summits to advocate for progress, but added that the pace of action remains sluggish.
“It is clear that our financial system is not working and to implement the actions needed to keep within $1.5 trillion must be mobilized,” she said.
“It will take a focused approach to revamping the system,” Rasmussen added.
She also talked about the inadequacy of the $100 billion climate finance goal, and called for a new and more ambitious target.
The official also underlined the need for transparent and accountable arrangements to achieve the new climate finance goal.
Lack of targeted financing for climate change
Michai Robertson, the lead negotiator on Climate Finance at the AOSIS, highlighted the lack of financing, particularly in developing countries.
“The percentage of grants that we get compared to loans actually has decreased, so we get more loans now as compared to grants,” Robertson said.
Calling to invest trillions of dollars to cope with the climate crisis, he said the international community already allocates trillions of dollars to wars and conflicts.
Approximately 6,000 attendees, primarily comprising representatives from national delegations and civil society organizations, will convene in Bonn, Germany from June 3 to June 13.
These meetings, organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at its headquarters, aim to sustain the momentum of addressing urgent climate issues between COP sessions.
This gathering serves as the UNFCCC's sole regular climate summit apart from the COP meetings.
The agenda of this year’s Bonn meeting includes a wide range of topics such as climate finance, national climate action plans, facilitating an equitable shift from fossil fuels, and national adaptation strategies, among others.
The outcome of these negotiations is expected to significantly shape the decisions taken at the 28th UN Climate Change Conference.
The next UN Climate Change Conference will be held in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku on Nov. 11-22.
