A youth-led environmental group in Ghana, Strategic Network for Development has bared its teeth at world leaders for non-commitment to climate finance pledges.
“The inactions of our leaders today will be a great burden to the future of young people. Nonetheless, young people have the skills, energy and talents, which with the appropriate support can make them change agents by taking up initiatives and contribute to the fight against climate change as well as create opportunities for youth development,” it stated.
The organization launched its position paper ahead of the 27th Conference of Parties to be held in Egypt.
The five-pointer paper featured ‘Loss and Damage’ which has been dominant in the buildup to the international event with climate actors advocating for it to be a third pillar after Mitigation and Adaptation.
Below are the five pointers:
1. Establish a Loss and Damage Finance Facility
Parties must establish a Loss and Damage facility with substantial financing annually from the Global North to highly vulnerable countries that are facing mass destruction as a result of the climate crisis.
2. Increase finance for Adaptation
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Adaptation Gap report found that the annual adaptation costs in developing countries alone are estimated at USD70 billion. This figure is expected to reach USD140-300 billion in 2030 and USD280-500 billion in 2050.
Therefore an increase in financing will be critical for countries to meet their adaptation goals. On this score, we are calling on leaders from the Global North to fulfill their pledges in the Glasgow Climate Pact to increase funding for climate adaptation especially for climate vulnerable countries.
3. Commit to increasing support for young people to participate in global climate change discourse.
We congratulate countries like Ghana for implementing some of the outcomes of the Glasgow Work Programme on Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) by commencing various youth negotiators programs. We therefore call for more support in terms of financial and capacity resources to ensure young people particularly from the global south are not left out of the global climate change discourse like the COP and other Subsidiary body meetings.
4. Accelerate global energy transition
Decisions made at COP27 must address the social, geographical and economic injustices surrounding the global energy transition conversation. Leaders from the global north must be held accountable for going back to issuing new deals on fossil fuel exploration after all the pledges made at COP26. A clear roadmap of how least emitting yet highly vulnerable countries can transition to depend only on clean energy sources for development, needs to be discussed and adopted.
4. Action not words
World leaders must ensure they act on all the “beautiful and juicy” pledges that will be made at COP27. Leaders must ensure the effective implementation of their respective Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) because real action we believe begins at the local level. World leaders must listen to the climate projections and take urgent action.