KARACHI: A large number of fisherfolk women, climate activists, and human rights advocates took part in a rally organised by the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD) and the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) on Friday.

The rally, which began from Governor House roundabout, ended at the Karachi Press Club.

Other similar rallies were staged across Asia ahead of the UN General Assembly with a demand for $5 trillion aid for climate finance.

“The US is the leading historical emitter of planet-warming greenhouse gasses, making their elite, corporations, and government primarily responsible for the climate crisis,” an activist pointed out.

“The US and other rich, polluting countries have a historical, legal, and moral obligation to cover the costs of mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, and ensuring a just transition in the Global South. If they cannot deliver an adequate amount of climate finance, injustice will prevail and people in the Global South will suffer the most as global temperatures soar,” another activist explained.

On the occasion, senior vice chairperson of PFF Fatima Majeed said that 2024 had been a devastating year for those at the frontlines of the extreme heat in South and Southeast Asia.

“The first half of the year saw the closing of schools, disrupted food production, and collapsed power grids,” she said.

“In southern Pakistan, 568 people died in six days due to heatstroke. In the second half of the year, the monsoon rains, exacerbated by climate change, have given Bangladesh its heaviest rainfall and worst flooding in over a century, leaving millions of people stranded and damaging $282 million worth of crops.

“In the Philippines, the department of agriculture disclosed that this year’s El Niño has cost 9.5 billion pesos in losses, devastating over 175,000 farmers and fisherfolk. This year’s extreme weather events remind us that the most vulnerable people in the Global South pay the heaviest price for climate change despite contributing the least to global emissions,” Fatima Majeed added. PFF General Secretary Saeed Baloch emphasised that under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the developed countries agreed to provide climate finance to cover the costs of developing countries’ climate programmes and projects.

“The target amount of climate finance that must be raised for the Global South will be a main agenda item at COP29 in November,” he said.

COP29 is expected to set the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) for climate finance, which will replace the previous goal of $100 billion a year, which has already been criticised as inadequate.

According to Saeed Baloch, “an adequate amount of climate finance for developing countries is estimated to cost at least $5 trillion a year. While this figure might seem high, studies show it’s actually a conservative estimate of the needs of developing countries”.

The UNFCCC’s first Needs Determination Report, released in 2021, estimated that the cost of mitigation and adaptation would be $5.9 trillion to $11.4 trillion until 2030. But this amount represents the cost of only 26 per cent of the needs of 24 countries, meaning the real cost of mitigation and adaptation is much higher.

“Not only does it violate the principle of historical responsibility to deliver climate finance through loans, it is deeply unjust to force poor countries to go into debt to address climate change. It is not enough that the amount of climate finance is adequate. It should also be public, non-debt-creating, unconditionally delivered, and new and additional to other financial obligations of developed countries,” Saeed Baloch concluded.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2024