To COP26, most vulnerable states call for pollute countries to pay for their climatic damage

Rich countries still have not maintained their 2009 commitment: pay $ 100 billion annually from 2020 to countries victims of global warming. The latter now call for a “emergency climate pact”.

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In a climate of growing mistrust, the most vulnerable states to climate change have identified their level of requirements, Wednesday, November 3, at the Glasgow Climate Conference (COP26). The Vulnerable Forum (CVF) climate representatives, the club that brings together these countries, claimed, as part of a “Dhaka Declaration”, the adoption of an “emergency climate pact”. Rich countries, considered as historical climate change managers, have still not kept their commitment dating from 2009 to pay $ 100 billion (86 billion euros) from 2020 to help them adapt to warming and reduce their emissions.

“We want an annualized plan for the issuance of the $ 100 billion promised, that half of these amounts go to the adaptation of our countries to climate change, and that the most issuing countries improve their contributions every year. to reduce emissions, not every five years. Finally, we would like the international monetary fund [and not the OECD, deemed less neutral] which is responsible for monitoring these commitments “, details Abdul Momen , Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh.

Formed in 2009 on the impetus of the Maldives, consisting of 55 countries representing 2 billion people, the CVF “is responsible for only 5% of total emissions, but its members are the first victims of warming,” says The minister, who also claims “restructuring of the debt of poor countries”. Certainly, Japan has announced $ 10 billion to help transition in developing countries. But for the time being, in Glasgow, the other large polluters on the planet have not significantly identified their short-term financial efforts. “The stakes, everyone knows them now. What it takes is more political attention to our realities, our lands that are salinized, our people who lose their roofs or their way of life,” says Abdul Momen.

“Irreversible losses”

The CVF also plans to maximize the notion of “losses and damage” related to global warming, listed on the COP agenda in Glasgow. He has been calling for the creation of a fund for years to compensate for the damage caused by warming. “Just for the Marshall Islands, we need several billion dollars, and it is without inclining the irreversible losses of our cultural identities and lifestyles,” says Kathy Jetnil-Kijin, the climate envoy of the Republic of Marshall Islands, a Pacific archipelago threatened with submersion.

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/Media reports.