From CK Nayak
DUBAI, Dec 2: The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a stark warning about the impending melting glacier crisis in the Himalayas which will affect millions of people living besides rivers like Brahmaputra, Ganga and Indus.
Approximately 240 million people rely on these glaciers and major rivers like the Brahmaputra, Ganga and Indus affecting another billion downstream in eight countries, including India.
Addressing a meeting with mountain countries at the ongoing Conference of Parties (COP28), Guterres emphasised that nearly a third of Nepal’s ice had vanished in just over 30 years, and it was directly linked to greenhouse gas pollution that heats up the planet.
Guterres, who visited Nepal, including the Everest region, in October last week, called for developed countries to clarify the delivery of USD 100 billion and produce a plan to double adaptation finance to USD 40 billion a year by 2025.
Considering that even this fund will be in pittance, he advocated for reform in International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to better cater to the needs of developing countries.
“So, we need the outcome of this COP to call for reform of the IFIs so that they reflect today’s world and are far more responsive to the needs of developing countries and for reform of the business models of the MDBs so that they can leverage far more private finance at reasonable cost to the developing countries,” he told the gathering. He said unless there is a change in course, a catastrophe can be unleashed.
Global delegates at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai formally adopted a damage fund that was decades in the making, and several countries pledged millions of dollars to it to help nations hit hardest by the climate crisis. This is the first success on the first day of talks that allows more time to discuss the thorny issues around slashing fossil fuels.
On the opening day of the COP28 climate conference, the loss and damage fund to help vulnerable countries cope with the impact of climate change was officially launched.
The initial funding is estimated to be USD 475 million — host UAE pledged USD 100 million, the European Union promised USD 275 million, USD 17.5 million from the US, and USD 10 million from Japan.
The loss and damage fund were first announced during COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, last year. However, it was not until a few weeks before COP28 that rich and poor countries managed to iron out some of their differences and agree on key points of the fund.