PACJA: Why SB60 should send positive signals on climate finance

Speaking on behalf of African Civil Society and Members of Parliament at the Bonn Climate Change Conference (SB60) in Germany on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, officials of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) submitted that the SB60 should send positive signals on climate finance

We speak on behalf of millions of victims of climate change impacts across Africa – smallholder producers, women, young people, people living with disabilities, indigenous people, local communities, small businesses – and wish to set priorities and pronounce ourselves regarding SB60.

SB60 comes few weeks after devastating climate-fueled floods swept across African countries and communities, leaving, as it has become exceedingly a ritual, millions of families devastated, marooned in water, thousands dead while property worth billions of Dollars remain destroyed.

In the Horn of Africa, hundreds of frontline communities were decimated, and, in some cases, families were wiped out completely by ranging flood water and landslides. These occurrences, which are vividly captured in scientific assessments and predictions, are becoming more frequent and underpins the urgency required to swiftly move from rhetoric to tangible climate action on the ground.

We are greatly concerned by the strangulation by climate-related debts and ballooning costs to adapt and recover from climate impacts. We are profoundly clear that establishing a new global climate finance compact that connect with the aspirations of the frontline communities and their vulnerable nations is of absolute urgency. SB60, thus, must eliminate all the bottlenecks to securing the climate finance agenda in COP29 in Baku.

Accordingly, SB60 should keep the hope alive, and particularly build on Dubai Declaration and UAE- Belem Work Programme. We wish to reiterate that the transformation we are seeking can only be feasible if the Parties to the UNFCCC maintain fidelity to their moral and legal obligations to save our planet and humanity from the existential threat of global warming.

All of us here in Bonn – Governments and Non-State Actors – are clear on what is at stake in this year’s negotiations. Securing public financing for climate action through the New Collective and Quantified Goal NCQG) tops the list of priorities that SB60 must put on a solid trajectory if any positive outcome is to be realised in Azerbaijan. For a realistic NCQG to be premised, significant progress must be made in framing the Global Goal on Adaptation which holds immediate promise to millions of Africans who are dying to adapt. We are alert to early signals in framing the transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems agenda, and we remain alive to the evolving conversation on just transition. All these require a sound financing goal!

At the onset, we remain steadfast on our numerous calls for climate finance goal to be centred on the provision of public finance by developed countries. We are however alarmed by the attempts by those who bear the biggest responsibility on climate crisis to transfer the burden of action to the victims of their actions by defeating the spirit of the Paris Agreement, double- counting of climate finance, propagating false solutions and, worse of all, baptising the already existing commitments under Official Development Assistance (ODAs) as climate finance.

The progress in the twin GGA and the NCQG on climate finance as spearheaded under TROIKA of UAE, Azerbaijan and Brazil must be apparent in the outcomes of SB60.

To this end:

1. We emphasis that the NCQG must be computed taking into account the holistic nature of the Paris Agreement to encompass financial projections for undertaking actions in adaptation, loss and damage, mitigation and just transition in supporting developing countries to transition to low-carbon development pathways. The finance goal must adopt a people-centred, locally led, gender-just and inclusive approach, including use of National Adaptation Plans and National Determined Contributions. For avoidance of doubt, we assert that loss and damage and adaptation must be integral part of the NCQG on climate
2. Call for fast-tracked action by the adaptation workstream in premising the Global Goal on Adaptation to argument context-based indicators that align with the realities of local communities, indigenous people, local communities, and marginalised communities to guide financial projections for the finance goal. In this regard, we assert that the UAE- Belem work programme must integrate indicators on the means of implementation (finance, capacity and technology) required to achieve the GGA, which too must be Further, the NCQG must provide sufficient resources for delivery of the NAPs as these remain the main vehicles for countries to systematically build resilience, enhance adaptive capacity, and reduce vulnerability to climate change. The mini-global stock-take on NAP process at SB60 should be pivotal in bringing the NAPs to the centre of global climate action, bolstering adaptation response in developing countries.
3. Call for access mechanisms for climate finance that are direct and flexible to accommodate the needs of developing countries and local communities. As a minimum, we emphasise the need for the finance goal that has well-replenished and robust mechanism for direct access to finance and decision-making for the last-mile institutions and communities.
4. Call for a much more transformative approach in centering the pursuit for transparency in climate diplomacy to not only ensure that developed countries are meeting their fair share of commitment, but also all pledges are swiftly disbursed to developing countries. Double accounting for ODA as climate finance must stop, and a thorough review of the financing mechanisms and modalities to ensure impact at the frontline, elimination of bureaucracies in access to funds and our collective effort for funding reaching the frontlines at speed and scale must now be at the core of our parameters that define
5. We sustain our agitation for all parties to work together to overhaul the climate finance architecture to ensure that it is transparent, accountable, accessible, and responsive to the needs and priorities of African communities. Specifically, the NCQG should have a consistent and standardised approach for accounting of climate finance to eliminate the emotive issue of double counting that has characterised climate finance landscape. We emphasise phased milestones for NCQG for ease of tracking and accountability.
6. Call on ambitious action in keeping the 5°C pathway alive. SB60 should be instrumental as an initial convergence of people with shared vision to shape pathways and targets transitioning away from fossil fuel, policies and measures to constrain or disincentivise production, just transition, economic diversification measures, equity, and international support. We demand that developed countries update and submit ambitious NDCs consistent with the provisions of Articles 3 and 4 of the Paris Agreement to keep alive the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.
7. In a broader sense, call for elimination of bottlenecks to climate finance that have hitherto impeded access to funds by the developing countries. We urge developed countries to stop hiding behind the definition of climate finance to delay concrete commitment, and call for a definition that ensures climate finance consists of only cross-border flows from developed to developing countries that have been actually disbursed and are new and additional, climate-specific and in the form of grant/grant equivalent consistent with imperatives of climate As a principle, loans from developed countries to developing countries, fully paid for and in interest by developing countries should not be computed as part of climate finance contribution of developed countries.
8. Call upon the Advisory Board of the Santiago Network for Loss and Damage to, with immediate effect, reverse their ill-informed and unjust decision, and adopt the recommendations from UNOPS-UNDRR that unanimously settled on Nairobi as the Host of the SNLD, ensuring the much-needed capacity support for addressing the apparent losses and damages is accessible to countries that need it most and at significantly lower

Finally, we wish to applaud the Africa Group of Negotiators (AGN) for meticulously and successfully concluding the election for the Chair to steer the African continent and people towards the negotiations that should be responsive to our realities, aspirations and imperatives of climate justice.

We congratulate Amb. Ali Mohammed of Kenya and Dr. Richard Muyungi of Tanzania for the compromise they struck, and once again commend the solomonic wisdom which arrived at a win- win agreement for all of us. As usual, we will steadfastly work with the Chairs and entire AGN, together with other stakeholders to rally ourselves behind a solid, common African Position.