“Footing the Bill” report :Oxfam International

In Context 

Recently ,Oxfam International  released a report titled “Footing the Bill”.

Major Findings 

• The UN requires eight times more financial support than 20 years ago to be able to provide humanitarian aid to low-income countries during climate-related disasters.
• Average annual extreme weather-related humanitarian funding appeals for 2000-2002 were at least $1.6 billion and rose to an average $15.5 billion in 2019-2021, an 819 percent increase. 
• Rich countries responsible for most of today’s climate change impacts have met only an estimated 54 percent of these appeals since 2017, leaving a shortfall of up to $33 billion. 
  • The countries with the most recurring appeals against extreme weather crises — over 10 each — include Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan and Zimbabwe.
• The richest one percent of people on Earth are emitting twice as much carbon pollution as the poorest half of humanity.

Impacts 

• People in low-income countries are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate-related disasters, be it droughts, floods or wildfires, as these disasters further exacerbate poverty and death affecting them disproportionately.
•  The costs of the destruction from these storms, droughts and floods are also increasing inequality; people in poorer communities and low-income countries are the worst hit .
• The economic cost of extreme weather events in 2021 alone was estimated to be $329 billion globally, the third highest year on record. 

Recommendations 

• The UN appeals focus on the most urgent humanitarian needs
• Ahead of 56th sessions of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) in Germany, which includes the first ‘Glasgow Dialogue’ on loss and damage since COP26, Oxfam urges: 

• Rich country governments pledge bilateral finance to address loss and damage, in addition to existing climate finance and ODA commitments.
• All governments agree to establish and fund a finance facility for loss and damage at COP27, with annual contributions based on responsibility for causing climate change and capacity to pay.
• All governments to agree to make loss and damage a core element of the UNFCCC’s Gender Action Plan

• “Paying the cost of climate-driven loss and damages should be on the basis of responsibility — not charity.”
• Rich countries, rich people, and big corporations most responsible for causing climate change must pay for the harm they are causing.
• Oxfam called for the establishment of a facility to draw innovative sources of finance from rich countries, which was rejected by developed nations at the 26th Conference of Parties (CoP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change last year.
• At CoP27, governments should agree to make loss and damage finance a core element of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s Global Stocktake

Source:DTE