Davos must address 'loss and damage' funding to climate hit communities

Mariana Paoli

Christian Aid, is urging the UK Foreign Secretary and the UK Chancellor to use high-level talks at Davos to scale up international commitments to support the world's most vulnerable communities to repair the damage from climate breakdown.

Mariana Paoli, Head of Global Policy and Advocacy at Christian Aid, said: "Leaders meeting at Davos are right to identify the climate crisis as the most significant global risk over the coming decade. But they will be accused of having their heads in the clouds if they fail to put money where their mouths are.

"If developed countries were serious about 'rebuilding trust', they should be fulfilling their climate finance obligations to developing countries as established by the UN climate Paris agreement. Taxing the profits of fossil fuels companies would be a no brainer to start doing that.

"The pitiful amount rich countries pledged at COP28 for the Loss and Damage Fund, which is less than 0.3% of what is needed, will not even address the loss and damage that climate vulnerable communities have experienced in these opening weeks of 2024.

"Climate vulnerable communities in poorer countries may be a world away from Davos, but this gathering of world leaders has it in their gift to change the odds and improve the lives and life chances of millions. They must scale up loss and damage funding."

2023 was the hottest year on record and Christian Aid's recent report, Counting the Cost 2023: A year of climate breakdown, shows that the relative economic impact of climate disasters varies considerably, creating a 'postcode lottery' stacked against the poor.