COP29 Press Release: Creation is a gift from God, and we are called to steward it
By Palwashay Arbab
Pakistan is significantly affected by climate change, facing a range of environmental and socio-economic challenges. The country experiences severe flooding, particularly during the monsoon season. The devastating floods of 2022, for instance, affected over 30 million people, causing extensive damage to infrastructure and homes. Increasing temperatures lead to frequent and intense heatwaves, impacting public health and agriculture and prolonged droughts affect water availability and agricultural productivity, threatening food security.
The rapid melting of glaciers in the Himalayas and Karakoram ranges affects river flows, leading to both water shortages and increased flood risks. Climate change is projected to cause significant economic losses. It is estimated that climate-related events could shrink Pakistan’s GDP by 18-20% by 2050, with its cumulative economic impact estimated to cost Pakistan around $38 billion annually.
In the past four decades, migration in the face of drought has been a regular bane for desert communities of Southern Pakistan. Since no one had ever intervened to teach them methods of mitigating the effects of natural disasters, they have suffered huge losses in terms of livestock and sometimes even human lives on the long trudge westward to the irrigated farmlands where they could find work.
Afghanistan has experienced its worst droughts in decades, with 25 out of 34 provinces facing severe or catastrophic drought conditions. These droughts have led to significant water shortages, affecting agriculture and drinking water supplies. On the other hand, flash floods are becoming more frequent and intense, destroying crops, infrastructure, and homes. While agriculture, which is the backbone of Afghanistan’s economy, is severely affected. Changes in rainfall and snow patterns disrupt farming cycles, reduce crop yields, and increase food insecurity and the loss of fertile land due to drought and desertification further exacerbates the situation, pushing many farmers into poverty. Environmental degradation and loss of livelihoods force many Afghans to migrate. Displacement due to climate-induced disasters is becoming more common, adding to the existing challenges of conflict and instability.
Climate change: impact on women and girls
Urgent need for climate finance: Pakistan
The World Bank estimates that Pakistan needs between $7 billion and $14 billion annually for climate adaptation. These funds are crucial for building resilience against climate-induced disasters, which have already caused extensive damage and economic losses.
Local and most affected communities can use climate finance to Improve Water Management, implementing efficient irrigation systems and water conservation techniques. The funds will be used to promote Climate-Smart Agriculture, enabling communities to adopt sustainable farming practices to enhance food security. Constructing flood defenses and resilient housing to withstand extreme weather and developing early warning systems and community-based disaster response plans require finances to be utilised as per the needs outlined.
A major challenge is the lack of financial resources and limited access to international climate funds. Additionally, there is a need for better coordination among local, national, and international stakeholders to effectively utilize the funds.
Communities in Pakistan face challenges such as poverty, lack of infrastructure, and political instability. These issues are exacerbated by climate change, which affects agricultural productivity and increases the frequency of natural. In Afghanistan, communities struggle with security issues, economic instability, and limited access to basic services. The ongoing conflict and restrictive policies further complicate efforts to improve gender equality and climate justice.
Addressing these challenges requires a coordinated approach that includes substantial financial investments, policy reforms, and community engagement to ensure sustainable development and resilience in both countries.
Palwashay Arbab, Head of Communications and Gender Justice Focal Point, Community World Service Asia. Palwashay is a humanitarian, communications and gender justice practitioner and safeguarding mentor based in Pakistan, working in the Asia Pacific region.
PHOTO: Sahar Zafar/CWSA
The following was the result of a virtual meeting of East and Southern Africa faith leaders in July 2024. They requested that ACT Alliance, Caritas Internationalis, and the Anglican Alliance develop this statement based on their hopes. It was endorsed by the following ACT Forums: Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, and Tanzania, and by Caritas’ faith leaders. It outlines the priorities of these faith and spiritual leaders for COP 29 and serves as a set of advocacy points on Climate Finance and the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA).
We, the religious leaders and faith actors representing Africa’s diverse and united voices, stand together to express deep concern for the consequences of climate change on the earth and its people, all entrusted, as our faiths reveal, to our common care. Despite contributing the least to global emissions, Africa faces exponential impacts, posing systemic risks to its economies, infrastructure investments, water and food systems, public health, agriculture, and livelihoods, threatening to undo its modest development gains and slip into higher levels of extreme poverty.
As guardians of ethical wisdom and spiritual guidance, we are saddened by the insufficient urgency and ambition in addressing climate change. It is crucial for political leaders, communities, and ourselves to respond to the earth’s cries and the urgent pleas of those most impacted by its changing climate. Our sacred teachings demand that we be responsible for creation. The values of stewardship, empathy, justice, equity, and solidarity, as enshrined in our faith traditions, must guide every decision and action that is taken at COP 29 in Azerbaijan, Baku.
As Baku begins, Africa must chart a new course of action in shaping the future of adaptation and climate finance through the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). The new finance goal will provide an opportunity for Africa to elevate her agency and strategically center real and felt needs, realities, and demands in the goal’s determination.
While the NCQG holds a significant promise to Africa, its success will depend on several factors.
Therefore:
As representatives of the majority of the global population who live with religious affiliations and values, we will not only hold leaders to account but will also support governments, and politicians working towards an ambitious global climate agreement in Paris and beyond.
Therefore:
We call for a fair, ambitious, and binding global deal applicable to all countries and amplify the following as matters central to the African region that must be considered.
Global Goal on Adaptation key considerations and messages
New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG)
Despite pledges to double adaptation finance since COP 26, issues with accessibility, ambiguity, monitoring, and accountability persist, revealing a huge gap between pledges and needs. The upcoming negotiations on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) at COP 29 should reveal pivotal outcomes.
We urge governments to:
With faith guiding our moral decisions and love and dignity illuminating our path, let us unite in the quest for a fair, impartial, and enduring world. Together, we possess the ability to revive, mend, and care for Mother Earth, the provider of sustenance for us all.
PHOTO: Abba Eeldesibhat Engidaw is a local priest who will address the traditional and spiritual mechanisms of forest protection with local residents. PHOTO: Yemoanpicture/ACT
By Mattias Söderberg
As world leaders gather in Baku, Azerbaijan for the UN Climate Summit COP29, the focus is squarely on climate finance – the linchpin that could determine the success or failure of global climate action. For years, climate summits have produced ambitious agreements and initiatives, from tripling renewable energy to transitioning away from fossil fuels. However, these laudable goals remain largely aspirational without adequate funding to back them up.
The urgent task at COP29 is to adopt a “New Collective Quantified Goal” on climate finance that is both ambitious and responsive to real-world needs. The current target of $100 billion per year is woefully inadequate, falling far short of what’s required to address the climate crisis effectively. But the new goal must be about more than just increasing the dollar amount.
Equally crucial is ensuring that future climate finance is accessible and allocated fairly. This means providing sufficient funding across mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage initiatives. It also requires implementing gender-sensitive approaches, respecting human rights, and empowering local communities with ownership and access to funds.
Negotiations on future climate finance are challenging, with parties far apart in their positions. No one wants to foot the bill, but the harsh reality is that if responsibility isn’t taken, the cost will automatically fall on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities. This is fundamentally unjust.
Instead, the future goal should be built on the “polluter pays” principle, ensuring that those most responsible for climate change bear the financial burden of addressing it. This approach not only aligns with ethical considerations but also provides a practical framework for mobilizing the necessary resources.
The climate crisis is still manageable, but only if decisive action is taken immediately. The challenge lies in ensuring that all countries can participate in this global effort. Many nations in the Global South lack the capacity to implement necessary measures without access to climate finance.
As negotiations unfold in Baku, the international community must recognize that climate finance is not just about numbers on a balance sheet. It’s about enabling a just transition, protecting vulnerable communities, and safeguarding our shared future. The decisions made at COP29 will ripple through generations to come. It’s time for world leaders to step up, break the deadlock, and commit to a climate finance goal that truly meets the moment. Our planet’s future hangs in the balance, and the clock is ticking.
Mattias Söderberg is co-chair of the ACT Alliance Climate Justice Reference Group.
PHOTO: Albin Hillert/LWF
By Phillip Huggins
The importance of a successful COP29 can’t be overstated. We know the quality of unprecedented unity and action which needs to happen:
COP29 is being held in Azerbaiijan, a country south of Russia and bordering Iran, which relies on oil and gas for 90 percent of its export income. Yet ambitious climate action is what is needed. This includes much in the area of ‘climate finance’ so those most in need have the capacity to mitigate the current effects of climate change and make sensible adaptations to what we know is coming.
Crucially, cooperative climate action at COP29 is also action for peace. It would say, should it happen, that we prioritise our collective future over national rivalries, enmities and corporate interests. Crucial, because after 28 previous COPs, this one needs to do so much more than any before. Ambitious outcomes need to be agreed quickly so implementation is not delayed. There must be no more compromises, no more talk of magical geo-engineering solutions that prolong fossil fuel use. No unnecessary distractions like the idea of nuclear power plants here, already sufficiently critiqued as folly.
Here in Australia, we are in a relatively safe place and with boundless opportunities to provide regional neighbours with encouragement by the pace and quality of our own transition to renewables. Many Australians are cooperating wonderfully.
The desperate need is for intelligent bipartisan cooperation. The transition to a society that is net zero carbon emissions is so complex and the consequences of failure will be catastrophic. The clear need is for the quality of national cooperation we meet in other emergencies. Not politics that fans resentment, amplifies doubts and makes people more anxious in an already anxious time. It’s hard to know what else to do that will bring reality to our political discourse.
We just have to persist … An actor friend, who is also an expert on Dante, decided this week to sew a simple message on silk and stand with it outside a central city train station in Australia. His silk banner says simply: ‘Thank you for taking the train.’
In times of hate and fear, in times where the survival of planetary life depends on the decisions we make now, the best lives are those that respond with love.
Bishop Phillip Huggins is the director of Ecumenical Studies at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture. An earlier version of this article appeared in Pearls and Irritations, John Menadue’s Public Policy Journal.
