The executive secretary of UN Climate Change, Simon Stiell, demanded this Monday “torrents of financing”to adapt to global warming because it makes “the difference between life and death.”
Stiell made these considerations at a high-level ministerial roundtable on national adaptation plans, held at the Baku Climate Summit in Azerbaijan, known as COP29.
«National adaptation plans are more necessary than ever. They are really vital. This year, we saw how every bit of preparation, every policy, every plan It’s the difference between life and death for millions of people around the world,” he said.
Stiell noted that financial and climate capacity resources are “scarce, especially for the most vulnerable, in least developed countries and small island developing states.” “People, communities and nations want to act, protect themselves and their loved ones, strengthen their businesses and economies, but they don’t have the means», he added.
Stiell emphasized that “when nations they cannot protect their links of global supply chains against the climate, all nations in our interconnected global economy pay the price.
“It literally pays the price, in the form of higher inflation, especially in food prices, as savage droughts, wildfires and floods devastate food production. We have to turn this script around,” he added.
“Elephant in the room”
Stiell urged countries to have national climate adaptation plans without ignoring the “elephant in the room,” which is the “great financing gap” that exists today.
«Adaptation costs are skyrocketing for everyone, especially developing countries. Your costs could increase to $340 billion a year in 2030reaching up to $565 billion a year in 2050,” he said, before adding: “These figures are the difference between safety and disasters that destroy the lives of billions of people.”
He highlighted that “almost half of the human population lives in critical points of climate vulnerability, where people have 15 times more likely to die from climate impacts».
In this sense, he highlighted that “we can no longer depend on small sources of financing.” «We need torrents of financing. “They must be easily accessible, especially for the most vulnerable countries, which often face the greatest barriers.”
Stiell called on multilateral development banks to think beyond traditional grants and loans. «Philanthropic organizations, the private sector and bilateral donors must step up with the urgency that this crisis demands, without increasing the debt burden of vulnerable countries. We must also work to minimize the bureaucratic obstacles that so often get in the way,” he added.
#demands #torrents #climate #finance #means #difference #life #death
