Pakistan will be among first to get G7 ‘Global Shield’ climate funding
A scheme to give speedy financial support to communities battered by climate disasters was launched on Monday by a group of rich and developing nations at the UN COP27 summit in Egypt.
The "Global Shield against Climate Risks" comes as many of the most vulnerable nations are also demanding wider compensation for the "loss and damage" they have already suffered from a heating planet.
The initiative, backed by the G7 and launched with initial funding of more than $200 million, aims to provide "prearranged financial support designed to be quickly deployed in times of climate disasters".
The Global Shield project "is long overdue", said Ken Oforiatta, Ghana's finance minister and chair of the V20 group of nations most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
"It has never been a question of who pays for loss and damage, because we are paying for it," he said in recorded remarks at the summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh.
A first group of nations that will benefit from the scheme includes Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Fiji, Ghana, Pakistan, the Philippines and Senegal.
The Global Shield is designed to provide a range of financial, social and credit protection and insurance for loss of crops, livestock, property and other goods. It also promises to support the swift delivery of funds for humanitarian agencies responding to disasters.
A formal loss and damage funding stream would likely go further, also covering longer-onset climate impacts such as sea level rise and threats to cultural heritage.
Besides $170 million from Germany, funding includes $20 million from France, $10 million from Ireland, $7 million from Canada and $4.7 million from Denmark.
France later said its total commitment would be $60 million over three years.