Amnesty Int’l insists rich countries should pay for climate change losses

Amnesty International (AI), yesterday, said rich countries responsible for global warming must agree at the forthcoming COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, to fully pay for loss of homes and damage to livelihoods across the continent.

It also said developed countries must fully fund African governments’ adaptation measures to prevent further forced displacements, stop human rights violations and help them to achieve fast and fair phase-out of fossil fuel production and use.

Baku COP29 is scheduled to hold from November 11 to 22. AI spoke against the backdrop of millions of people displaced by climate change disasters in Africa.

Countries have, so far, pledged less than $700m of the $400 billion that lower-income countries estimated for loss and damage by 2030. AI said international financial institutions must ensure equitable distribution of the money to African countries based on needs.

Its Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Samira Daoud, said: “African people have contributed the least to climate change, yet from Somalia to Senegal, Chad to Madagascar, we are suffering a terrible toll of this global emergency, which has driven millions of people from their homes. It’s time for the countries who caused all this devastation to pay up so African people can adapt to the climate change catastrophe.”

Amnesty International research has shown that in every corner of the African continent, including Nigeria, droughts, floods, storms or heat are displacing people within countries and across borders, resulting in human rights violations, including loss of shelter, disrupted access to food, health care and education, plus risk of gender-based violence and even death.

Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah, said: “Across Africa, the worst effects of climate change are already here. Extreme droughts, floods, storms and heat are destroying livelihoods and local economies and forcing more and more people to flee their homes.
In every instance, Amnesty International has researched; national governments do not have the resources to properly respond. The countries that caused these rapidly escalating unnatural disasters must foot the bill to address them.”

Chagutah added: “Given the scale of climate-induced displacement and human rights violations in Africa, half-measures and lip service are not enough from the richer countries, who caused this crisis. But commitments at COP29 to fully and equitably pay for loss and damage and adaptation measures in Africa are just the start. The countries responsible for climate change, along with international finance institutions, must follow through and deliver the needed resources. Africa cannot wait any longer.”