Fiji Outlines Loss and Damage Financing Demands
‘We Want Loss and Damage Financing Facility to Be Finalised Within Two Year Period, Not Endless Negotiations at Every COP’
Fiji’s head of delegation to the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) has outlined its demands on the implementation of a loss and damage financing facility.
Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Satyendra Prasad said COP27 was termed as an implementation COP and the most fundamental building block for implementation was finance.
Mr Prasad said the world has left adaptation too late and for small island states in the Pacific, the window for adaptation has closed.
“We are relocating communities in Fiji and for some communities there is no adaptation window left for them,” he said.
“We want loss and damage to be concluded and finalised within a two-year period and not endless negotiations in COP because loss and damage may for other countries is something for the future, but in our part of the world it is something that has been happening for decades.
“I hope that when we meet in Abu Dhabi for COP28 the loss and damage facility is fully shaped up and ready to be operationalised at that COP.”
He said Fiji hopes that the loss and damage financing facility would be substantial.
“We hope that the procedures of accessing this finance will be simple and that countries like ours will be able to access these funds speedily,” he said.
“That’s the lesson we learnt at GCF; do not over complicate or over design what we will already have. We need predictable financing.
“The procedures for accessing climate finance needs to be simplified and this needs to be done in a fastforwarded way.
“This needs to take place and there is no question about that.”