COP28: Catholic NGOs call for action for climate justice

By Lisa Zengarini

One week after the release of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation 'Laudate Deum', faith leaders around the world have released a statement endorsing a newly established Loss and Damage Fund  to mitigate the detrimental and unjust impacts of climate change already affecting the poor.

The statement is a joint effort of several Catholic organizations, including Caritas Internationalis, the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF), the international family of Catholic social justice organisations (CIDSE), and Laudato Si’ Movement, and is open to leaders of all faiths across the world who wish to show their support for action on Loss and Damage (L&D).

The Loss and Damage Fund

Following the global climate talks at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheik last year (COP27), a breakthrough agreement was reached to provide financial assistance to poorer nations as they bear the brunt of the negative impact of climate change, including rising sea levels, prolonged droughts and severe flooding, desertification, forest fires and crop failures. 

While the agreement was welcomed by many NGOs, including Churches and Catholic organizations, as an important step forward, its success largely depends on how quickly nations are able to get the fund up and running, namely by reaching an agreement on its funding and scope to be finalized at the COP28 meeting schedulted for 30 November-12 December in in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

Need for climate justice

According to the faith leaders the fund could correct the deep injustice at the heart of the current climate crisis, “building peace, harmony and solidarity to respond to this challenge to our common home.”

In the statement, which will be delivered during the global climate summit, they call for a fit-for-purpose Loss and Damage Fund which gets money to the people who need it the most; is adequately resourced based on the polluter-pays principle; and fully addresses non-economic losses and damages.  

Recalling that many poor nations who contribute the least to the current climate crisis and “already struggle to secure basic needs for their people are now paying the price of other nations' actions”, the signatories also reiterate that the new global fund must be accompanied by “urgent action to reduce emissions as quickly as possible to ensure the 1.5C temperature goal is not exceeded, and to invest in essential adaptation efforts to prevent future harms.”

An accessible, inclusive and restorative fund

The faith leaders explain that the fund must be accessible, “ensuring that communities in need across the Global South get the money they require to recover, and be masters of their own future.”

It must also “be comprehensive, supporting both responses to economic as well as non-economic losses and damages, for extreme weather events and slow-onset events such as sea-level rise and desertification.”

The signatories  further say that the Fund “must be restorative, providing grants not loans on the basis of the polluter-pays principle,” and that it must be “representative, underpinned by human rights and the principle of subsidiarity, and governed by an equitable board acting in the common good.”

On the need for the fund to be efficient and effective, the religious leaders write that it needs to provide “rapid response when disasters strike, long-term support to protect from future damages, and acting as the flagship global fund to address losses and damages alongside other funding arrangements.”