Islamabad to receive G7 climate funding
PM URGED JUSTICE OF CLIMATE SOLIDARITY AT COP27
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.
Direct impact
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.
Under the newly launched initiative, these countries will receive more than €210 million ($218 million) in funding, mostly from Germany. The €170 million funds from Germany include €84 million as core funding to the Global Shield and €85.5 million for climate risk finance instruments.
Other pledges include 4€.7 million from Denmark, €10 million from Ireland, €20 million from France, and $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.
Global Shield initiative
“Climate change has eliminated one-fifth of the wealth of the V20 over the last two decades. V20 would have been 20 per cent wealthier today had it not been for climate change and the losses it incurred for poor and vulnerable economies” it said.
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 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.