COP27 kicked off on 6 November with the adoption of the agenda, including “matters relating to funding arrangements responding to loss and damage" – for the first time creating formal institutional space to discuss loss and damage finance, a critical issue for countries in the developing world as climate catastrophes continue to worsen.
Andrew Harper, the Special Adviser on Climate Action for the (UNHCR), discusses the importance of addressing not only the issue but also making sure the voices of people who have suffered losses and damages are heard loud and clear at COP27.
Question: What is UNHCR’s message for world leaders and negotiators at COP27?
Andrew Harper: What we're bringing to COP is not only the voices of the displaced and the most vulnerable groups, particularly in conflict affected areas.
So we've got people from Niger, from the Sahel, from East Africa, also voices from South Asia as well because it's super important not just to be talking on behalf of others, we need to make sure that the people who are being impacted have got the opportunity to talk on behalf of themselves. So giving that voice to otherwise people who might see themselves as voiceless is super important because as many entities are saying here - don’t make decisions about us without us.
Question: Now that loss and damage finance is on the agenda, what are your expectations? What’s next?
Andrew Harper: We’ve been encouraged by the fact that loss and damage is on the agenda. But that's not enough. Now we've got to move the situation - how do you operationalize, how do you release those finances to support the affected populations? And those populations are growing by the day.
I was talking to UNICEF and they are now saying that 26,000 children have been displaced by the by the effects of climate change every day. So it's not a situation of just saying children are the future - children are being impacted now. So what are we doing about financing facilities that help refugees, or children or people who need that now?
Question: How is climate change worsening conditions for displaced communities?
Andrew Harper: The impact of climate change is amplifying vulnerabilities. Those vulnerabilities in many cases are leading to conflict, competition over resources, forcing people to move. And unfortunately, in some situations that's erupting into violence, whether it be in the Sahel, East Africa, Southern Africa, in southern Asia, the Americas, no one is immune to the impact of climate change. But the difference is there are some populations who are more at risk than others.
Last year, basically one person was being displaced per second due to extreme weather events. Of course, the humanitarian agencies can't do that. National governments can't do that. If we look in Pakistan, if you look at the countries in the Sahel, if you look at Kenya, if you look at Mozambique - all the development gains that they had struggled and fought for over the last decade, two decades, are either being lost or at risk.
Read what other prominent Voices from COP27 are saying about the themes, negations and the way forward.
