Islamabad: Pakistan and six other countries facing climate risks will be the first recipients of ‘Global Shield’ funding, it was confirmed at the COP27 summit in Egypt.
The Group of Seven (G7) and the Vulnerable 20 Group of Finance Ministers (V20) of 58 climate-vulnerable economies officially launched the Global Shield packages for most affected countries that include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Fiji, Ghana, Senegal and the Philippines.
In Pakistan, record-breaking floods have killed 1,700 people, affected 33 million people, left one-third of the country underwater and caused more than $30 billion in damages. In Kenya, drought has killed livestock and devastated livelihoods. Fiji is struggling to relocate communities to escape rising seas. The countries facing the most direct impact of the climate crisis have been demanding compensation from the big polluters for the loss and damage they’ve caused with greenhouse gas emissions to protect their people from future threats.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif demanded climate justice and urgency of climate solidarity in his emphatic speech at the UN climate conference COP27 in Egypt.
Funding
Under the newly launched initiative, these countries will receive more than 210 million euros ($218 million) in funding, mostly from Germany. The 170 million euro funds from Germany include 84 million euros as core funding to the Global Shield and 85.5 million euros for climate risk finance instruments. Other pledges include 4.7 million euros from Denmark, 10 million euros from Ireland, 20 million euros from France, and US$7 million from Canada.
German federal development minister Svenja Schulze said the launch of climate funding sends a signal that “We have heard the urgency and we are acting. We aim at overcoming differences even in challenging circumstances. Germany wants to be a bridge-builder.” She added that Germany stands by its responsibility to support vulnerable people and countries in dealing with climate-related loss and damage.
In the last 20 years, nations in the V20 group are estimated to have lost $525 billion to their GDP because of climate change-related events, according to a report by V20. “Climate change has eliminated one-fifth of the wealth of the V20 over the last two decades. V20 would have been 20% wealthier today had it not been for climate change and the losses it incurred for poor and vulnerable economies” it said.
Global Shield initiative
The ‘Global Shield’ initiative for pre-arranged financial support has been desi¬gned to be quickly deployed in times of climate disasters. The implementation will immediately start after COP27, according to the joint pre¬ss release of V20, G7 and the German Ministry of Eco¬nomic Cooperation and Development.
Ghana’s finance minister and V20 chair Ken Ofori-Atta called it “a path-breaking effort” that would help protect communities when lives and livelihoods are lost. “The Global Shield is long overdue. It has never been a question of who pays for loss and damage because we are paying for it – our economies pay for it in lost growth prospects, our enterprises pay for it in business disruption, and our communities pay for it in lives and livelihoods lost” he said. The Global Shield will help bridge the resourcing gaps facing climate action, he added.
The special envoy of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) Ghana Presidency, Henry Kokofu, said the funding is just the beginning and the crisis needs more effective innovations and continuous efforts. “Have we not noticed the way heat waves have ransacked entire cities in France, Italy, and Spain? Forest fires have invaded the US and flooding has invaded Germany. It is time to wake up. It is time for more path-breaking efforts and to grow allocations to enable the ambition of the Shield to cover far more than what it currently protects.”
