Comment by Riaz Haq on November 13, 2022 at 5:59pm

Paying for Climate Damage Isn’t Charity

By Ani Dasgupta

Mr. Dasgupta is the president and C.E.O. of the World Resources Institute.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/opinion/environment/un-climate-c...

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt — The climate crisis has reached new levels of devastation this year for millions of people in vulnerable countries that didn’t cause the problem. Floods in Pakistan, drought in the Horn of Africa and hurricanes in the Dominican Republic — all intensified by climate change — have ruined people’s livelihoods, causing losses so immense that it is hard for many in richer countries to even fathom.

For nearly three decades, the countries most vulnerable to climate disasters have asked wealthy countries to help them pay for the damage, only to be stonewalled.

At the annual United Nations climate conference this week, the issue is formally on the agenda, a breakthrough in itself. Encouragingly a smattering of wealthy countries, including Austria, Germany, New Zealand, Ireland, Belgium and Denmark, have started to pledge money — albeit small amounts.

These contributions are welcome, although some of the pledges reallocate funds from other pots of climate finance, or are putting money toward insurance, or early warning systems — not the kind of funding that poorer countries seek.

What these countries have been calling for, and urgently need, is a collective funding stream within the United Nations that helps them recover from devastating losses from disasters, rising seas and other climate impacts.

The United States and European Union must get behind this movement now. Specific details on how much money, where it comes from, who gets it and what qualifies take time to work out. But what’s critical at the current climate conference is that wealthy countries agree to a process, with clear deadlines, to pay for the damage.

It’s not a matter of charity. Taking action is firmly in rich countries’ own interests. As climate change bears down, more factories and ports around the world — the ones that wealthy nations rely on for their phones, car parts, fast fashion and even food — will close, devastating global supply chains. Food prices will rise. More people will be displaced, leading to additional migration crises. Conflict will grow more likely as people fight over land and water. The repercussions will destabilize even the most robust economies. Preventing that outcome now, by financing recovery from climate damage, will ensure a more stable future for everyone.

This kind of funding is called “loss and damage,” and it is meant to address climate impacts that people can’t simply adapt to. The concept may seem wonky, but it’s not: Loss has a name. Damage has an address.

Where do the millions in Pakistan turn now that they’ve been displaced by floods? What do small farmers in Kenya do when a prolonged drought makes it impossible to grow crops to feed their families? All over the world, people are facing excruciating decisions every day.

Rich countries generally have the resources to weather these climate impacts. In the United States last year, 54 percent of disaster-related losses were insured, compared to just 3 percent on average in the world’s 77 poorest countries.

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 13, 2022 at 6:00pm

Paying for Climate Damage Isn’t Charity

By Ani Dasgupta

Mr. Dasgupta is the president and C.E.O. of the World Resources Institute.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/opinion/environment/un-climate-c...

The United States and European Union have rejected or stalled on this kind of financial assistance, raising concerns that committing funds for climate loss and damage could seem like an admission of guilt, and open the door to a flood of lawsuits. But the 2015 Paris agreement should already have put that concern to rest, since it makes clear that “averting, minimizing and addressing” loss and damage “does not involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation.”

Some developed countries claim that humanitarian aid already meets the need. It does not. Humanitarian aid provides immediate shelter and food relief after a disaster strikes, but is not available, for example, to the Fijian islander who must relocate because of rising seas, or the fisherman in Palau whose livelihood evaporates after tuna migrate to cooler waters.

The initial loss and damage commitments are politically important. Yet the need is exponentially greater — these costs worldwide could reach $290 billion to $580 billion in 2030, according to one estimate.

A new fund to hold parties responsible could change the lives of billions of people on the front lines of climate change, offering a path to recovery where none exists today. When a cyclone hits, a government could quickly apply for funding and distribute it to help people rebuild destroyed homes. For continuing issues like droughts, the money could help farmers diversify their skills when their original livelihoods are no longer viable. But it could also improve the lives of people in wealthy countries, by building resilience to global supply chains, by stabilizing the economies where their businesses import and export goods, by creating the conditions for a more peaceful world.

As Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said this week at the conference, “Countries in the Global North that have caused climate change and have the greatest access to resources have an obligation to step up.”

Any more stonewalling by wealthy nations on finance for loss and damage could derail the entire climate negotiations here in Egypt. The world’s ability to tackle climate change hinges on trust between developed and developing countries, and without concrete progress to address these severe losses and damage, that trust risks being broken.

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 13, 2022 at 7:27pm

Pakistan: 2022 Monsoon Floods - Situation Report No. 11 (As of 11 November 2022)


https://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/pakistan-2022-monsoon-floods-...


Highlights

As people continue to return to their places of origin and with the winter season approaching, the vulnerabilities of the flood-affected people are further heightened with an immediate need for adequate shelter, food items and tents.

More than 5.1 million women are of reproductive age, including an estimated 410,846 pregnant women. Approximately 136,950 births are expected in the next three months.

A comparison of pre-flood (June) and post-flood (September) prices of some food commodities indicates a huge increase in prices.

As of 11 November, humanitarian partners have reached 7.9 million people with life-saving assistance in flood-affected areas.

Vector-borne and water-borne diseases remain a major concern in flood-affected areas. Around 1,000 confirmed cholera cases and 64,767 dengue fever cases, with 147 deaths, have been reported.

SITUATION OVERVIEW

Over the past few weeks, flooded waters have continued to recede in many flood-affected areas across Pakistan, although vast volumes of persistent flood waters remain stagnant in many places, particularly Sindh and Balochistan provinces. Based on observations by the United Nations (UN) Satellite Centre between 03 October and 09 October 2022 and compared with observations between 11 and 17 October 2022, the overall flood water continues to decrease with approximately 200 km2 in Balochistan, 100km2 in Punjab and 4000 km2 in Sindh. According to the latest data, large parts of Kashmore, Jacobabad, Mirpurkhas and Sanghar in Sindh observed significant water reduction. In most affected districts of Sindh, local governments are de-watering land to allow people to resume their livelihoods.

In the flood-impacted areas, many households rely on agriculture and livestock production for their livelihoods, and damage to these sectors will have a major impact on food security and the agriculture sector in the coming months. According to information from the field, farmers reported debt of around PKR 100,000-150,000 on average due to damages to their crops. Most of the Kharif season crop damage occurred in Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, and most of the livestock losses occurred in Balochistan, Sindh, and Punjab.

The uncertain economic situation in the country, exacerbated by the heavy monsoon floods, is creating significant challenges to local ecosystems and food supply chains. According to World Food Program (WFP), a comparison of pre-flood (June) and post-flood (September) prices of some food commodities indicated a huge increase in prices - wheat flour 32%, pulse moong 57%, tomatoes 138%, potatoes 45%, and onions 44%. In September alone, prices increased for staple cereals, including wheat flour (+17.2%), wheat (+10.2%), rice Irri-6 (+7.9%), and rice Basmati (+2.3%) compared to August 2022. As for non-cereal food commodities, the trend remains - a significant increase was noted in the average retail prices of pulse Moong (18.6%), live chicken (14.1%), eggs (13.8%), pulses Gram (6.7%) and Mash (6.5%).

Cases of water and vector-borne diseases and acute respiratory illnesses, especially among children and older adults, remain a key public health challenge in flood-affected areas of Sindh and Balochistan. As of 8 November, according to World Health Organization (WHO), around 8 million flood-affected people need health assistance, including the provision of essential medical supplies and access to essential health care. As the displaced people return to their places of origin, they face an increased risk of disease transmission driven by damaged infrastructure, stagnant water, and inadequate sanitation facilities.

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 13, 2022 at 7:28pm

Pakistan: 2022 Monsoon Floods - Situation Report No. 11 (As of 11 November 2022)


https://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/pakistan-2022-monsoon-floods-...


Cases of water and vector-borne diseases and acute respiratory illnesses, especially among children and older adults, remain a key public health challenge in flood-affected areas of Sindh and Balochistan. As of 8 November, according to World Health Organization (WHO), around 8 million flood-affected people need health assistance, including the provision of essential medical supplies and access to essential health care. As the displaced people return to their places of origin, they face an increased risk of disease transmission driven by damaged infrastructure, stagnant water, and inadequate sanitation facilities. Since the beginning of the year, around 1,000 confirmed cholera cases and 64,767 dengue fever cases, with 147 deaths, have been reported. Furthermore, according to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), as of 10 November, more than 5.1 million women are of reproductive age (15-49 years), including an estimated 410,846 women who are currently pregnant, with approximately 136,950 births expected in the next three months. For these women, there is a need to strengthen health systems, train health workers, educate midwives and improve access to the full range of reproductive health services.

Water, sanitation and hygiene face heightened challenges due to the destruction of water infrastructure and low availability of clean water for bathing, cooking and drinking, with families resorting to contaminated water for daily use. Even before the floods, according to the World Bank, the country faced high water shortage risks for non-agricultural purposes. Under a high-growth (4.9 per cent per year) and high-warming (3°C by 2047) scenario, water demand is projected to increase by almost 60 per cent, with the highest rates of the increase coming from the domestic and industrial sectors. Climate warming will account for up to 15 per cent of this increase in demand. Moreover, climate-related shocks like the current floods will continue to put additional strain on access to safe water for communities.

As of 11 November, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has recorded 1,739 deaths and 12,867 injuries since mid-June. In addition, more than 2.2 million houses have been damaged or destroyed, 13,115 kilometres of roads damaged, 439 bridges destroyed, and over 1.1 million livestock lost. Furthermore, as the winter season in many of the affected areas is approaching fast, the vulnerabilities of the flood-affected people are further heightened with the immediate need for shelter, food items and non-food items.

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 14, 2022 at 6:56am

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - Pakistan, Ghana and Bangladesh will be among the first recipients of funding from a G7 'Global Shield' initiative to provide funding to countries suffering climate disasters, the programme announced on Monday at the COP27 summit in Egypt.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-11-14/pakistan-will...(,the%20COP27%20summit%20in%20Egypt.

The Global Shield, coordinated by G7 president Germany, aims to provide rapid access for climate-vulnerable countries to insurance and disaster protection funding after floods or drought. It is being developed in collaboration with the 'V20' group of 58 climate vulnerable economies.

A statement issued by Germany on Monday listed Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Fiji, Ghana, Pakistan, the Philippines and Senegal as some of the initial recipients of Global Shield packages.

Those packages would be developed in the coming months, Germany said.

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 14, 2022 at 4:07pm

As the Cop27 global climate conference began its second week in Sharm El Sheikh on Monday, a new funding initiative to help poorer nations handle the effects of climate change was launched by G7 nations.


https://www.thenationalnews.com/climate/cop27/2022/11/14/global-shi...

Called Global Shield, the new mechanism is backed by the V20 group of climate-vulnerable nations and will initially receive more than €200 million ($206m) in funding, mostly from Germany.

At Cop27, the issue of loss and damage was listed on the agenda for the first time ever at a UN climate conference.

Climate-vulnerable countries say wealthy industrialised nations should help to pay for irreversible damage from floods, storms and rising seas, after decades of emissions caused global temperatures to rise.

The Global Shield, co-ordinated by G7 president Germany, aims to provide climate-vulnerable countries with rapid access to insurance and disaster protection funding after floods or drought.

It is being developed in collaboration with 58 climate-vulnerable economies to bring together climate risk finance and preparedness.

The fund will both help nations prepare for climate change and respond to natural disasters sparked by rising temperatures.

"Climate-related disasters have devastating impacts on poor people in particular," said Svenja Schulze, Germany's Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"They often do not have the means to protect themselves and their homes, fields or businesses against extreme weather and can lose their entire possessions when a disaster strikes."

She stressed that the scheme was not "a tactic" to sidestep calls for a specific loss and damage funding mechanism.

"The Global Shield isn't the one and only solution for loss and damage, certainly not," she said, adding that more funding will be needed to cover more countries.

"Those most affected by climate impacts need practical action now."


Ireland's Taoiseach Micheal Martin also committed €10 million, telling the gathered diplomats and world leaders that what were "once exceptional events are now occurring with increased frequency and ferocity. People in the poorest parts of our planet are being driven from regions that can no longer support and sustain them”.

France stumped up an initial $20 million, saying its total commitment would be $60 million over three years. Canada and Denmark will contribute $7 million and $4.7 million respectively.

US President Joe Biden has also backed the plan.

As the conference continues, Germany will be hoping for more contributions, but some are sceptical.

EU negotiator Jacob Werksman said talks were not ready to agree on a single funding solution, but he hoped the Cop27 summit would achieve more than just scheduling further talks on climate compensation.

"We don't think that this process is ready to agree in principle that a new fund or facility is the right or the only way forward," he said.

A statement issued by Germany on Monday listed Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Fiji, Ghana, Pakistan, the Philippines and Senegal as some of the initial recipients of Global Shield packages, although 58 nations are in talks over the programme.

Those packages would be developed in the coming months, Germany said.

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 14, 2022 at 4:12pm

As the Cop27 global climate conference began its second week in Sharm El Sheikh on Monday, a new funding initiative to help poorer nations handle the effects of climate change was launched by G7 nations.


https://www.thenationalnews.com/climate/cop27/2022/11/14/global-shi...


A statement issued by Germany on Monday listed Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Fiji, Ghana, Pakistan, the Philippines and Senegal as some of the initial recipients of Global Shield packages, although 58 nations are in talks over the programme.

Those packages would be developed in the coming months, Germany said.

Ghana’s Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta called it “a path-breaking effort” that would help protect communities when lives and livelihoods are lost.

But civil society groups were sceptical, warning that the programme should not be used as a way to distract from the much broader effort to get big polluters to pay for the loss and damage they have already caused with their greenhouse gases.

Poorer, vulnerable nations also want financing to help them shift to clean energy and for projects to adapt to global warming.

Teresa Anderson of ActionAid International said the scheme showed that the global community recognised the need to act on loss and damage, but said it was a "distraction" from negotiations on a dedicated funding mechanism for climate damages.

"Everyone knows that insurance companies, by their very nature, are either reluctant to provide coverage, or reluctant to pay out," she said. "But when it comes to loss and damage, this is a matter of life and death."

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 15, 2022 at 7:17am

Pakistan's lost city of 40,000 people

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20221114-pakistans-lost-city-of-...


In the dusty plains of present-day Sindh in southern Pakistan lie the remains of one of the world's most impressive ancient cities (Moenjo-Daro)that most people have never heard of.

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Now, several thousand years later, the city is once again in danger after devastating super floods hit Pakistan in August 2022. Dr Asma Ibrahim, an archaeologist and museologist who's been involved in preservation work all over the country, confirmed that while Mohenjo-daro had been damaged, the flooding to the site was less than archaeologists had originally feared.

-------------


I was about an hour outside of the dusty town of Larkana in southern Pakistan at the historical site of Mohenjo-daro. While today only ruins remain, 4,500 years ago this was not only one of the world's earliest cities, but a thriving metropolis featuring highly advanced infrastructures.

Mohenjo-daro – which means "mound of the dead men" in Sindhi – was the largest city of the once-flourishing Indus Valley (also known as Harappan) Civilisation that ruled from north-east Afghanistan to north-west India during the Bronze Age. Believed to have been inhabited by at least 40,000 people, Mohenjo-daro prospered from 2500 to 1700 BCE.

"It was an urban centre that had social, cultural, economic and religious linkages with Mesopotamia and Egypt," explained Irshad Ali Solangi, a local guide who is the third generation of his family to work at Mohenjo-daro.

But compared to the cities of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, which thrived around the same time, few have heard of Mohenjo-daro. By 1700 BCE, it was abandoned, and to this day, no-one is sure exactly why the inhabitants left or where they went.

Archaeologists first came across the ancient city in 1911 after hearing reports of some brickwork in the area. However, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) dismissed the bricks as not having any kind of antiquity and the site remained undisturbed for several more years. It wasn't until 1922 that R D Banerji, an ASI officer, believed he saw a buried stupa, a mound-like structure where Buddhists typically meditate. This led to large-scale excavations – most notably by British archaeologist Sir John Marshall – and the eventual naming of Mohenjo-daro as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1980. The remains they uncovered revealed a level of urbanisation not previously seen in history, with Unesco lauding Mohenjo-daro as the "best preserved" ruin of the Indus Valley.

Perhaps the city's most surprising feature was a sanitation system that was far beyond its contemporaries. While drainage and private toilets were seen in Egypt and Mesopotamia, they were luxuries of the rich. In Mohenjo-daro, concealed toilets and covered drains were everywhere. Since excavations began, more than 700 wells have been recovered, in addition to a system of private baths, including a 12m x 7m "Great Bath" for communal use. Incredibly, toilets were found in many private residences, and waste was covertly disposed of through a sophisticated, city-wide sewage system.

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Mohenjo-daro's ability to master the arts of sanitation and sewage disposal were not the only advanced features that set the inhabitants apart from other early civilisations. Archaeologists have noted the use of standardised building materials, despite a dearth of machines.

"All the bricks have a ratio of 4:2:1, even if they are not of the same shape," Rizvi explained. "It's important to recognise that all these bricks are following a sensibility of sorts. There's a sense of what they want their city to look like. If you make everything to a ratio, even the spaces that you are walking through then inherently follow a certain sensibility of a ratio as well."

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 17, 2022 at 9:54am

The next wave of mass migration
FEDERICA SAINI FASANOTTI
Extreme weather events are likely to become the main cause behind waves of immigration toward Europe.

https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/climate-migration/

urricane Ian, which disrupted the lives of millions when it swept over the Gulf of Mexico in late September this year, will not soon be forgotten. Torrential rains and winds of up to 240 kilometers per hour produced an extraordinary surge that flooded not only coastal areas but also their hinterland.

At the same time, Typhoon Noru was slamming into the Philippines. Earlier this year, Hurricane Fiona formed near Puerto Rico and hit Canada with unprecedented force, and Typhoon Nanmadol drove 9 million people to evacuate from their homes in Japan. Typhoon Merbok devastated Alaska with waves more than 50 feet high. Pakistan saw dramatic floods, aggravated by melting local glaciers. Leaving as much as one third of the country underwater, and more than 1,600 people and 800,000 livestock dead, the disaster will change the face of Pakistan for decades. The United Nations has called these phenomena the footprint of climate change.

Although Africa’s 54 states have not contributed significantly to the global emissions that accelerated climate change, the continent is one of the hardest hit. Desertification, dust storms and rising sea levels are poised to wreak havoc on large segments of the African populace.

By 2100, Africa is expected to account for 40 percent of the global population, which will grow to 11 billion. There will likely be 2.5 billion Africans by 2050. Amar Bhattacharya of the Brookings Institution writes that this growth will require an extraordinary increase in investment in “three critical areas: energy transitions and related investments in sustainable infrastructure; investments in climate change adaptation and resilience; and restoration of natural capital (through agriculture, food and land use practices) and biodiversity. … Altogether, Africa will need to invest around $200 billion per year by 2025 and close to $400 billion per year by 2030 on these priorities.”

African governments will be the first line of defense to safeguard the continent’s biological heritage, such as the rainforest of the Congo River Basin, which like the Amazon is crucial to removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Africa’s worst climate-related changes in recent decades are not hurricanes, but rather a persistent drought. The near extinction of Lake Chad is a prime example, as are the widening of the Sahel desert belt southward and the increasingly long periods without rain throughout the Maghreb. The population will grow but rainfall will decrease, thus rapidly shrinking the amount of arable land. And temperatures will rise – in a continent where only half of the 1.2 billion residents have access to electricity.

If these trends continue unchecked, much of Africa will ultimately become uninhabitable. In the Lake Chad basin, 5.3 million people (mostly fishermen and farmers) were displaced by climate-related changes. Experts predict that Africa’s glaciers will disappear: those of Mount Kenya by 2030 and those of Mount Kilimanjaro by 2040.

Already, small rural communities in the Maghreb struggle to produce enough to subsist. The same goes for intensive agriculture, which in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, generates up to a fifth of gross domestic product. Even slight disruptions will have exponential effects on those societies.

Comment by Riaz Haq on November 17, 2022 at 11:05am

Increasing U.S. Aid to Pakistan Is a Strategic and Moral Imperative
By increasing aid to Pakistan, the United States will propel forward its own strategic interests and fulfill humanitarian obligations while simultaneously helping this South Asian nation avert crisis.

Blog Post by Andrew Gordan, Guest Contributor


https://www.cfr.org/blog/increasing-us-aid-pakistan-strategic-and-m...

Pakistan faces a grave and growing crisis. In late summer, historic floods ravaged the South Asian nation, submerging a third of the country under water and displacing millions. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s economy has reached a breaking point and political unrest threatens to throw the nation into further disarray. At the climax of the floods, international media covered the disaster extensively and donor countries—including the United States—rushed in with pledges of assistance. As of November 2022, the United States has delivered $97 million in aid to Pakistan. However, this figure barely registers on the scale of Pakistan’s recovery requirements, estimated at $40 billion. Increasing assistance will not only avert the deepening crisis in Pakistan and fulfill U.S. humanitarian obligations, but will also serve U.S. strategic interests.

The scale of Pakistan’s predicament cannot be understated. Over 1,500 people died and 12,000 were injured in the summer floods. Infrastructure across Pakistan was crippled: thousands of kilometers of road and hundreds of bridges were destroyed, as well as almost two million homes.

Adding pressure in crisis, Pakistan is suffering from high inflation—roughly 26 percent year-on-year in October 2022—and low foreign exchange reserves. As prices for liquified natural gas skyrocket with the war in Ukraine, Pakistan is struggling to secure essential imports. The resumption of International Monetary Fund (IMF) funding in August has done little to plug the gaps. While bilateral creditors have offered debt relief, this is largely confined to allowing the postponement of payments in the short-term and the forgiveness of small amounts of debt.

Political tensions have also added to the challenges in Pakistan, hampering government capacity. After his ouster by a vote of no-confidence in April, former Prime Minister Imran Khan has consolidated his political popularity, challenged the sitting government to hold early elections, and survived an assassination attempt on November 3.

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