Earth Today | SIDS ready for climate finance fight

EVEN AS THE global climate talks (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan get under way this week, small island developing states (SIDS) are primed and ready to bat for what they describe as a “transformative New Collective Quantified Finance Goal”.

The New Collective Quantifiable Goal, NCQG for short, is a new global climate finance goal that the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement is to set from a floor of US$100 billion per year, prior to 2025.

It is specifically intended to enable the accelerated achievement of Article 2 of the Paris Agreement, which is about “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, recognising that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change”.

Article 2 also speaks to increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emission development in a manner that does not threaten food production; as well as making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emission and climate-resilient development.

SIDS insist that the new finance goal is essential to their survival, particularly with respect of the 1.5 degrees temperature goal. They also say that their special circumstances must be recognised and prioritised, given the scale of their vulnerability to climate change.

“Achieving the 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming limit is more than just a survival issue for these nations; it is crucial for ensuring a sustainable future for everyone. For our islands, a significantly ambitious new climate finance goal, the NCQG, is the key that unlocks the path to Keep 1.5 Alive, and delivers for mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage response,” said Ambassador Fatumanava Dr Pa’olelei Luteru, chair of the Alliance of Small Island Developing States (AOSIS), in a media release dated November 10.

AOSIS has, since 1990, represented the interests of 39 small island and low-lying coastal developing states in international negotiations on climate change, sustainable development, and oceans.

“Adequate climate finance is essential to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Without it, the global effort to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is at risk, along with the future of sustainable development for all,” the AOSIS chair added.

SIDS also maintain that the proposed NCQG should not only be new money but also predictable and distinct from official development assistance or other international finance flows. Additional criteria included “grants for adaptation and loss and damage, rather than loans or repurposed funds; minimum allocation floors for SIDS; and with the amount set to increase as the climate crisis deepens”.

“The NCQG must facilitate not only mitigation of further warming but also build resilience to unavoidable climate impacts and address the loss and damage already caused by decades of global emissions,” noted the November 10 release.

According to Ambassador Luteru, the world is “running out of time in this critical decade to halve emissions by 2030, and the stakes here at COP29 are incredibly high”.

“COP29 must reinforce last year’s momentous agreement to transition away from fossil fuel and continue the momentum with a bold new climate finance deal that benefits us all. COP29 must be a defining moment in multilateralism, securing actionable solutions to de-escalate the climate threats endangering our world,” the ambassador added.

Climate change, with its serial impacts – from blistering global temperatures to extreme drought and hurricane events that have repeatedly devastated sections of the Caribbean, sea level rise and coastal erosion – is the single most significant challenge facing humanity, among whom SIDS populations are especially vulnerable.

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