Vulnerable Countries Need Action on Loss and Damage Today

In March 2023, more than 600 people died in Malawi after Tropical Cyclone Freddy dumped heavy rain, flooding the southern part of the country, displacing over half a million people, and damaging property and livelihoods, writes Busani Bafana for Inter Press Service.

The Malawi calamity is a stark example of "loss and damage" - the negative impacts of human-caused climate change that is affecting many parts of Africa.

In November 2022, COP 27 achieved a historic agreement to establish a dedicated Fund for damage, and the growing negative impacts of climate change highlight the urgency of financial support to address loss and damage for vulnerable countries.

Loss and Damage, according to the climate talks, refers to costs being incurred from climate-fuelled impacts such as droughts, floods, extreme heat, rising sea levels and cyclones.

The Transitional Committee established at COP27 comprises 10 members from developed countries and 14 members from developing countries. It met in Luxor, Egypt from 26-29 March 2023 to 'present recommendations on the institutional arrangements, modalities, structure, governance, and terms of reference for the Loss and Damage fund'.

The agreement to set up the Loss And Damage Fund was a major breakthrough for the vulnerable developing countries who had been demanding it for many years highlighting that Parties to the UNFCCC have now agreed to find ways to provide funding to the victims of human-induced climate change who are suffering losses and damages, according to Scientist and director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), Saleemul Huq.

While the deliberations continue on the arrangement of loss and damage and, more critically, the financing of a deliberate Fund, communities in vulnerable countries like Malawi do not have tomorrow; they have lost today, and the damage they have suffered is not undoable.