Where climate loss and damage means life and death

What is “loss and damage”?

Industrialized nations like the U.S., China, and Russia have contributed the bulk of the historic greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, which is why the global community sees them as having a significant responsibility for the impacts of the crisis, including loss and damage.

For years, low and mid-income countries have advocated for these wealthier, industrialized countries to establish a fund to help pay for the damage caused by the changes wrought from decades of their greenhouse gas emissions.

But only last year, in Egypt, have governments at COP27 included “loss and damage finance” on the agenda for the first time.

After intense negotiations and advocacy, world leaders took the groundbreaking step by establishing new funding arrangements, including the Loss and Damage Fund (L&DF), aimed at assisting vulnerable, developing nations in dealing with the severe impacts of climate change.

One of the primary goals of this fund is to ensure that financial resources are available to assist communities and nations facing the greatest risks, like Somalia – a country responsible for less than 1% of the global emissions that cause climate change –in coping with the consequences of the crisis they did not cause.

Floods and drought are, of course, just a few of the consequences that experts say are only going to get worse. Not only was 2023 the hottest year on record, but a recent study showed how the already-baked-in effects of climate change are likely to be here for 50,000 years.

In the short term, a recent report from The Lancet showed how climate-fueled extreme heat has killed 11% more people in Africa over the past five years than normal, and is contributing to growing food insecurity as well as disease outbreaks around the world.

What you can do to help right now

Despite this grim outlook, there are things to be done right now.

The IPCC has laid out a roadmap to rolling back the effects of climate change, and a major part is demanding wealthy countries meet their commitments on climate finance and stop perpetuating an injustice that must be rectified.

The recent COP28 agreement on the operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund offers a glimmer of hope, but also reveals shortcomings, since, while the COP28 conversations continue, the loss and damage does, too.

“Nearly two million Somalis have been affected by once-in-a-century floods after five failed rainy seasons,” Walter Mawere, Advocacy and Communications Coordinator for CARE Somalia says. “These communities have contributed the least to climate change, and yet they are now facing hunger and a lack of drinking water, with 1 million people forced to leave their homes.”

As world leaders prepare to leave Dubai in the coming days, the message from climate advocates is clear: the Loss and Damage Fund must not remain an empty promise.

CARE and other organizations are calling on the governments most responsible for the climate emergency to do more than just, as Greta Thunberg said in Egpypt, “Blah blah blah.”

Funding loss and damage is only a start.

“Financial commitments must not be about robbing Peter to pay Paul: funding must be new and additional,” says Fanny Petitbon, Head of Advocacy for CARE France. “COP28 must also design a clear pathway to establish innovative sources of finance based on a polluters-pay principle, such as a tax on the fossil fuel industry, a frequent flyer levy, a tax on international shipping fuel, a global wealth tax or a financial transaction tax.”

Petitbon also points out that loss and damage will only get worse if world leaders don’t address the root causes of climate change.

“COP28 must deliver an unwavering commitment to a fast, full, fair, and funded fossil fuel phase-out,” Petitbon says. “This is paramount to prevent future loss and damage, which sits at the heart of our collective responsibility to safeguard our planet for future generations.”