Survivors of the extreme weather effects of the climate crisis are speaking at COP26, the day the summit focused on “loss and damage” – a phrase used to describe the inevitable and increasing damage from global warming.
“When the death toll reached 6300, they stopped counting,” said Marinel Ubaido of the Philippines and a survivor super typhoon Haiyan, which was a hit eight years ago today. “There are still more than 1600 bodies missing.”
“Even today we are shouting for justice for our friends and families who have lost their lives,” she said. “We are fighting for a future that is not filled with worry and fear that another Haiyan may ever come. We do not deserve to live in fear. We deserve an optimistic future. We demand immediate action.” We do.”
Ubaido said, many people live in the same vulnerable places, because their livelihood is there. “I’m too tired to just run away and take off and then I don’t even know if we’ll have a home to go back to.”
Joe Dodds of Tarthra, a small coastal town in New South Wales, Australia, said 69 of his 400 homes had been destroyed. Forest fire From 2018: “Since then, I have been living in fear. It’s destroying our communities, it’s killing our people.”
“People talk about bushfires being a normal aspect of the Australian climate, but I can tell you they are not,” she said. “There is no one who is not overly concerned by the frightening heat and speed and unpredictability of these fires. We have had a fire with snow on the hills behind us during the winter that lasted seven weeks. “
Dodds said: “Australia must take steps to help developing countries that are feeling the effects of climate change more deeply than we are,” Dodds said. “But it’s not helping its own people either.”
It is destroying our communities, it is killing our people.
Sven Harmling at the NGO Care said that loss and damage has been part of COP discussions for at least eight years, but was not being taken seriously: “Developing countries still need to fight over whether What [even] Agenda item or not. “
“There should be clear progress on identifying losses and damages and new sources of finance,” he said. “Without this, this COP cannot be a successful response to climate injustice. It is absolutely necessary to help stop this climate madness.”
Yamid Dagnett at the World Resources Institute said: “The ostrich policy of developed countries, which hides behind the fear of liability and compensation, has not worked and is not working.” It noted that Tuvalu and Antigua and Barbuda have stated that they can sue to get money.
Lisa Plattner at WWF-Austria said the economic impacts of global warming are estimated at $290bn to $580bn per year by 2030. He said it was up to Alok Sharma and the UK president to make progress this week: “It’s time for the presidency.”
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