‘In an Era of Climate Extremes, Loss and Damage Finance Is a Must’, Secretary-General Tells Baku Launch Event

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks for the launch event for the high-level dialogue on complementarity and coherence of loss and damage funding arrangements, in Baku today:

It is a pleasure to join you today.  And I thank the Conference of the Parties presidency for bringing us together.

The gains many of you have helped to secure on loss and damage must not themselves be lost.

Our world is getting hotter and more dangerous.  And this is not a matter for debate.  It is a matter of fact.  We’ve just had the hottest day, the hottest months, the hottest years and the hottest decade in the history books.

Climate disasters are piling up — harming those who’ve done the least, the most.  We see economies wrecked, lives taken, livelihoods lost and development denied. And meanwhile, those that contribute more to the destruction — particularly the fossil fuel industry — continue to reap massive profits and subsidies.

The creation of the loss and damage fund is a victory for developing countries, for multilateralism and for justice.  But its initial capitalization of $700 million doesn’t come close to righting the wrong inflicted on the vulnerable.

$700 million is roughly the annual earnings of the world’s 10 best-paid footballers.  It does not even account for a quarter of the damage in Viet Nam caused by Hurricane Yagi in September.

We must get serious about the level of finance required. I urge countries to commit new finance to the fund.  And to write checks to match.

But bilateral flows alone won’t suffice.  We need new responses, and new sources, to meet the scale of need.

I urge countries to agree a new climate finance goal that taps innovative sources.

We need to implement solidarity levies on sectors such as shipping, aviation and fossil fuel extraction to help fund climate action.

We need a fair price on carbon.  And, more broadly, we also need to support multilateral development banks in order to increase the lending capacity so they are fit to respond to the climate crisis.

In an era of climate extremes, loss and damage finance is a must.

I urge Governments to deliver.  In the name of justice.