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Among a small crowd, a little girl takes the loudhailer to share her thoughts about the climate change loss and damage fund.
This may not be the mature stuff one expects to hear from a 12-year-old, but Licypriya Kangujam differs from her peers. Kangujam is a prominent global young climate activist who has already been to 32 countries, pushing the campaign for a clean planet.
The Indian girl is at COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), where she has joined co-campaigners from all over the world to give pro-fossil fuel companies and governments a few messages as written on their placards:
The protests at this United Nations climate change conference are rather low-key as compared to previous ones, obviously due to limited freedom of expression in the UAE. Only pre-approved protests have been allowed on the venue so far, and outside, none have taken place.
READ: Cop 28: Governments and private sector pledge R1.04 trillion to climate change priorities
Kangujam says that she welcomes the loss and damage fund but dreads the possibility that it may be a loan burdening poor countries already in distress from climate change impacts, such as heatwaves, droughts and floods.
Developed countries have so far pledged $725 million (R13.2 billion) towards the fund.
It may be a little too late because the damage is already being done, according to a report authored by climate expert and modeller James Rising of the University of Delaware, US. Rising’s report states that climate change led to a population-weighted GDP loss of 6.3% in 2022, considering direct, spillover and capital losses.
It finds that the unweighted percentage of global GDP lost is estimated at 1.8%, or about $1.5 trillion. Low- and middle-income countries, which have contributed the least to global warming, have experienced $2.1 trillion in produced capital losses due to climate change. African nations have experienced an average loss of 8.1% in GDP in 2022. The most severely affected region is south-east Asia, which has suffered an average loss of 14.1% of GDP.
READ: COP28: Private sector-driven green energy industries can unlock trillions for African economies
Kangujam says:
The US has pledged $17.5 million (R329 million).
Kangujam says that climate change affects those who have nothing to do with it – Global South countries and the youth, such as herself.
“When I was younger, I had many questions about the changes I was seeing before my eyes, such as floods and intense heat. These are the things that affect us yet we are not responsible for them,” she says.
Kangujam added that she saw nine biodiversity hotspot areas in her village in Manipur, northeast India, perishing due to global warming.
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The establishment of the loss and damage fund has so far been the most notable achievement of the COP28. More pledges to drive climate change priority projects have been made.
They include the replenishment of the green climate fund by $3.5 billion to $12.8 billion, renewable energy $2.5 billion; technology ($568 million); methane reduction ($1.2 billion), climate finance ($30 billion from UAE plus $200 million in special drawing rights and an increase of $9 billion annually from the World Bank); food ($2.6 billion); nature ($2.6 billion); health: ($2.7 billion); water ($150 million); relief, recovery and peace ($1.2 billion); local climate action ($467 million).
The Climate Action Network said at the opening of the conference that it wanted nothing but the phasing out of fossil fuels. The network stated that COP28’s success would be judged on whether it achieved the complete phasing out of fossil fuels.
