By Joyce Chimbi
BAKU, Nov 21 2024 – Today the COP29 Presidency released a much-awaited new draft text as the end draws near.

The draft acknowledges that developing countries suffer disproportionately from impacts of climate change amid a plethora of barriers and challenges, such as the high costs of capital, limited fiscal space, high levels of indebtedness, and high transaction costs, which also further exacerbate existing developmental challenges.

“The African Group welcomes the new draft decision text on New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), now much streamlined. These ten pages contain many of the principled positions from the African Group and other developing countries, although continues to include many of the untenable positions of the developed countries as options in the text,” says Ambassador Ali Mohamed, Kenya’s Special Envoy for Climate Change and Chair of the African Group of Negotiators.

“The elephant in the room, however, is the lack of a quantum proposal, and the text does not specify numerical figures for the proposed mobilisation goal or for the provision element, despite a common position from the G77 and China on a USD1.3 trillion annual mobilisation goal. This is the reason we are here, identifying a quantified goal, but we are no closer and we need the developed countries to urgently engage on this matter.”

The text’s first option closely mirrors what the developing countries are asking for. It states that an unspecified trillion of dollars will be raised annually from 2025 through 2035, provided and mobilised from developed to all developing countries. But it also raises eyebrows as it ‘invites’ developing countries to provide finance ‘voluntarily’ as long as this does not count towards the main goal. 

These funds will be used to address developing countries evolving needs, in grants or grant-equivalent terms of new, additional, affordable, predictable, non-debt inducing and adequate climate finance, for adaptation, mitigation and loss and damage, to support developing country Parties and to support the implementation of their nationally determined contributions.

Mohamed Adow, a climate justice advocate and director of energy and climate think-tank Power Shift Africa referred to the new text on the NCQG on climate finance as a blank cheque and asked developed countries to put actual figures on the table. Stresing that it is only by putting specific numbers to the goal that negotiations at COP29 will move forward smoothly. 

“The new text rightly diagnoses the climate problem, including the required finance for adaptation and energy transition, but glaringly omits what the rich countries will actually provide to developing countries. The elephant in the room is the lack of specific numbers in the text. This is the ‘finance COP’. We came here to talk about money. You measure money with numbers. We need a cheque but all we have right now is a blank piece of paper.”

Further stressing that the text includes “some important signals on grant-based financing, and the need to avoid debt inducing instruments. Developed countries now urgently need to fill in the blanks and put their finance card on the table to move the negotiations forward.”

Developed countries are more aligned to second option which indicates that the NCQG has one provision and one mobilization component, and that developed country Parties shall provide at least USD [X] billion per year in grants or grant-equivalent terms referred to as provision goal to support the achievement the mobilization goal from the floor of their current levels – USD100 billion per year – of financial contributions. Observers say option two is ‘a goal to be reached by 2035, giving wealthy nations longer to mobilise to meet it.’

Others have taken issue with the draft saying it is has explicitly attempted to remove all references to historical polluters’ obligation to pay in line with the Paris Agreement, saying that this is an attempt to set things in motion for private sector financing to enable polluting countries to take bare minimum financial accountability. Notably, the draft suggests burden-sharing arrangements for developed country Parties based on historical emissions and GDP per capita.

Cristina Rumbaitis, Senior Adaptation and Resilience Advisor, UN Foundation says the text is “very poor and disappointing, especially on adaptation. First, the floor for adaptation is out. Secondly, there is no reference to the Global Goal on Adaptation or the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience. Thirdly, there is only language around balancing between mitigation and adaptation and loss and damage. This could further reduce funding for adaptation.

She nonetheless says there is “some good language on qualitative elements and call for a floor for adaptation for Least Developed Countries and the Small Island Developing States from all relevant actors and financial mechanisms. But also very weak statements like grant financing should be used for adaptation and loss and damage to the largest extent possible. We had hoped for more.”

On gender and climate change, the text notes that gender-responsive implementation and means of implementation of climate policy and action can enable Parties to raise ambition, as well as enhance gender equality, and just transition of the workforce and the creation of decent work and quality jobs in accordance with nationally defined development priorities.

The text decides to extend the enhanced Lima work programme on gender for a period of ten years. The Lima Work Programme on Gender (LWPG) was established in 2014 to advance gender balance and integrate gender consideration into the work of Parties and the secretariat in implementing the Convention and the Paris Agreement.

Further, the United Arab Emirates just transition work program recognizes that “the widening adaptation finance gap may hinder the implementation of just transition pathways in developing countries, especially those that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.”

It underscores that multi-stakeholder, people-centric, bottom-up, whole-of-society approaches are required to achieve just transitions and recognizes the importance of education systems and skills development, including through upskilling and reskilling, labour rights and social protection systems, and of consideration of the informal sector, the care economy, unemployed people and future workers for ensuring a just transition of the workforce.”

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By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 21 2024 – Doctors Without Borders, the medical humanitarian organization, which has served in Haiti for over 30 years, announced on Wednesday that it would suspend its activities in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital amid repeated threats from local law enforcement. This announcement indicates the precariousness of the situation in Haiti where humanitarian groups on the ground face security issues from even members of law enforcement.

In their announcement, Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), cited multiple incidents where local police made verbal threats on staff members, threatening violence, death and rape. Other incidents included attacks on ambulances, tear-gassing, and harassment. This also comes following an incident on November 11, where two patients were executed following an attack on an ambulance by police and vigilante groups. The spokesperson for the Haitian National Police has not a public comment.

MSF patient admissions will be halted, excluding patients that are currently in care and those that are receiving care in the maternity sector. All five of the organization’s medical facilities in Haiti are currently inactive.

“As MSF, we accept working in conditions of insecurity, but when even law enforcement becomes a direct threat, we have no choice but to suspend admissions of patients in Port-au-Prince until the conditions are met for us to resume”, said Christophe Garnier, MSF’s head of mission in Haiti.

Prior to halting operations, MSF provided care to over 1,100 patients, 54 children with emergency conditions, and more than 80 survivors of sexual violence on a weekly basis. Humanitarian organizations predict that this will be a massive blow to Haiti’s barely functioning healthcare system.

“Healthcare services have never been so limited for people in Haiti. Many people will lose access to MSF services because we are not able to work safely in Port-au-Prince,” Garnier added.

The appointment of Alix Didier Fils-Aimé as the new prime minister of Haiti has been followed with sharp rises in social insecurity and gang violence. In recent days, attacks on civilian settlements reached new levels of brutality, with armed gangs gaining more territory in the capital, Port-Au-Prince.

Thousands of civilians have fled their homes. Due to the wide scale of needs, as well as numerous security challenges, humanitarian efforts have been pushed to their limits. Shelters and essential resources remain critically strained.

The past few weeks have yielded a considerable surge in gang violence, with most of the attacks being concentrated in the capital and the Artibonite River region. According to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a total of 20,000 Haitians have fled their homes in the past week, noting significant disruptions to basic services such as education, protection, and healthcare.

This recent escalation has also led to a rise in civilian casualties. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the recent attacks have pushed the total death toll from gang violence past 4,000 in 2024 alone.

Currently, it is estimated by OCHA that armed groups control 85 percent of Port-Au-Prince. According to Ulrika Richardson, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Haiti, gangs have begun to gain increasing amounts of territory within the capital.

This endangers thousands of civilians and provides humanitarian organizations with numerous access challenges. “With only 20 percent of Port-au-Prince accessible, humanitarian workers face immense challenges in reaching affected populations,” said chief of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Haiti, Grégoire Goodstein.

On November 19, the Viv Ansamn gang launched an attack on Petionville, an upscale neighborhood in Port-Au-Prince. Armed gang members clashed with the local police and civilians, resulting in the deaths of at least 28 suspected gang members according to the Haitian National Police. Jimmy Chérizier, the leader of Viv Ansamn, has threatened reprisals of violence, encouraging opposition from the police and the Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission, saying, “They think they can stop us, but all the helicopters in the world won’t be enough. The gangs are here to stay”.

This is only the latest in a series of attacks following the Fils-Aimé’s appointment as prime minister. The Viv Ansamn coalition is especially known for capitalizing on moments of extreme political instability in Haiti. “In a power vacuum like this, it’s a fertile ground for organized crime,” Richardson remarked.

In the hours following the attack, MSF made their announcement to suspend its activities in Port-au-Prince until further notice. The conditions in Haiti pose a security threat to humanitarian workers, even as they work tirelessly to remedy the needs of affected civilians.

Living conditions in displacement shelters have considerably deteriorated due to the lack of humanitarian aid and medical care. According to a report from OCHA, approximately half of the Haitian population faces severe food insecurity. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reports that access to healthcare and sanitation resources are severely limited, with women being highly susceptible to gender-based violence and unsafe practices, such as transactional sex.

The UN has pledged to continue its efforts in providing humanitarian assistance wherever it can. “Despite the temporary suspension of air transport, humanitarian operations continue actively in the Port-au-Prince area, although security conditions are unpredictable. In addition, humanitarian and recovery activities continue uninterrupted in the rest of the country,” Richardson said.

Aid personnel are currently on the frontlines, distributing essential resources to affected communities, including hot meals, cash transfers, clean drinking water, healthcare, and psychosocial support. Additionally, the UN urges member states of the MSS mission to continue their support.

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By Joyce Chimbi
BAKU, Nov 21 2024 – Of all fossil fuels, coal has had the most serious and long-term effects on global warming. When burnt, coal releases more carbon dioxide than oil and gas, producing an estimated 39 percent of the global carbon dioxide emissions. Yet, coal is still the number one energy source, providing nearly 40 percent of the world’s electricity.

A COP29 deal struck on Wednesday November 21 now holds the promise to change the fossil fuel landscape and climate change trajectory, placing the world back on track to net zero. Twenty-five countries and the EU have now pledged not to build any new unabated coal-power plants in their next round of national climate plans in bid to scale up ambitions in the next phase of climate action.

Fossil fuels are highly polluting. The ‘no new unabated coal power’ COP29 initiative was signed by EU climate envoy Wopke Hoekstra to pledge that when the 25 nations submit their national climate plans by February 2025 along with all other nations party to the Paris Agreement, theirs will reflect no new unabated coal in their respective energy systems to accelerate phasing out of fossil fuels.

In reference to fossil fuels, ‘unabated’ means taking no measures to reduce the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas. Abated refers to attempts to decrease release of polluting substances to an acceptable level.

“I’m often asked what gives me confidence that we can get this job done.  The answer is lots of things.  Quiet acts of solidarity, from people who get knocked down, but who refuse to stay down.  But there are also big things – the macro trends that aren’t up for debate.    And there’s none bigger than the global clean energy boom – set to hit two trillion dollars this year alone.  And it’s just getting started,” Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, stressed.

“Money talks, and as we enter the second quarter of this century, it is saying loud and clear: there is no stopping the clean energy juggernaut, and the vast benefits it brings: stronger growth, more jobs, less pollution and inflation, cheaper and cleaner energy. The list of benefits goes on.” 

The coalition of nations backing the diplomatic campaign to encourage all countries to end new coal power is constituted of mostly wealthy nations such as Germany, France, Canada, the United Kingdom and notably Australia – a major coal producer. This is the latest pledge towards curbing use of the fuel and phasing out fossil fuels in line with the COP28 deal.

The pledge is incredibly critical for despite coal being extremely dangerous to the global climate goals, a coal boom is unfolding. Data in the Global Coal Plant Tracker show that “69.5 GW of coal power capacity was commissioned while 21.1 GW was retired in 2023, resulting in a net annual increase of 48.4 GW for the year and a global total capacity of 2,130 GW. This is the highest net increase in operating coal capacity since 2016.”

COP29 has been centered around a new deal for climate financing to support the third Nationally Determined Contributions in the developing world, but delegates have not lost sight of the COP28 landmark deal when nearly 200 nations—for the first time—called on all nations to transition away from fossil fuels.

Teresa Anderson, the Global Lead on Climate Justice at ActionAid International, told IPS, “Just transitions and climate finance have to go hand in hand. Last year’s agreement to transition away from fossils was an important step. But without finance to make the just transition a reality, developing countries are in a bind.”

Stressing that climate-hit countries want to “leapfrog the fossil fuel era and scale up renewables, but can’t do so when they are being pushed deeper into debt by the climate crisis. To finally unlock the climate action the planet needs, COP29 needs to agree on an ambitious finance goal worth trillions of dollars in grants each year. Ensuring a just transition in energy is about much more than encouraging corporate investment and can’t just be left up to the private sector.

“When shifting away from fossil fuels, governments have a responsibility to actively involve communities in planning, training, social protection and ensuring energy access and secure livelihoods. Public services can join the dots, and have a key role in the just transition. The new climate finance goal has to provide trillions of dollars in grants, not loans or corporate investment targets,” Anderson observed.

Hailed as a major progressive step in the journey towards phasing out fossil fuels, the initiative is nonetheless not the silver bullet to end coal. The new commitment does not compel nations to stop mining or exporting coal. Notably, the world’s greatest coal-power generators, such as the United Nations and India, are not part of the initiative. Nonetheless, despite coal power growing in the past years despite the COP28 deal on fossil fuels, Hoekstra expressed optimism that this call to action will set the ball rolling towards a much-needed fossil fuel phasing out.

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By Abdoulaye Diallo
DAKAR, Senegal, Nov 21 2024 – At the UN climate change conference in Baku (COP29), government officials are scrambling for an agreement on a new climate financial package. There is a well established consensus that the climate crisis is exacerbating the hardships of vulnerable communities around the world. The question now is who’s going to pay for the staggering costs?

A small tax on just seven of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies could grow the UN Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage by more than 2000%, as shown in an analysis by environmental organisations Greenpeace International and Stamp Out Poverty. Taxing last year’s revenues of major oil companies could help cover the costs of some of this year’s worst weather events attributed to climate change.

Taxing ExxonMobil’s 2023 extraction could pay for half the cost of Hurricane Beryl, which ravaged large parts of the Caribbean, Mexico and the USA. Taxing Shell’s 2023 extraction could cover much of Typhoon Carina’s damages, one of the worst that the Philippines experienced this year. Taxing TotalEnergies’ 2023 extraction could cover over 30 times Kenya’s 2024 floods.

A Climate Damages Tax (CDT) could deliver desperately needed resources for communities and authorities who are on the front lines of the climate crisis, made worse by dirty energy companies. Companies which, together, earned almost US$150 billion last year.

So, what could a long term tax on fossil fuel extraction, combined with taxes on excess profits and other levies, deliver? A climate damages tax imposed across wealthy OECD countries, increasing annually by US$5 per tonne of CO2-equivalent based on the volumes of oil and gas extracted, could play an essential role in financing climate action.

It could raise an estimated US$900 billion by 2030 to support governments and communities around the world as they face growing climate impacts.

Who should pay? This is fundamentally an issue of climate justice and it is time to shift the financial burden for the climate crisis from its victims to those responsible for it. There is an urgent need for innovative solutions to raise the funds to meet the challenge posed by climate loss and damage. Governments worldwide must adopt the climate damages tax and other mechanisms to extract revenue from the oil and gas industry.

The data clearly shows Big Oil’s complicity in the crisis we’re in, but to truly deliver climate justice the numbers are never enough.

That’s why our call to make climate polluters pay comes at the conclusion of three weeks of protests, in which survivors of floods and other extreme weather events have stood with Greenpeace activists. Together, activists delivered to offices of dirty energy companies (e.g, TotalEnergies, Eni, Equinor, OMV) containers full of broken toys and family photos, furniture, appliances, and other remnants of personal and communal tragedy, which became far worse because of Big Oil’s ever growing production of oil and gas.

For governments to finally force climate polluters to stop drilling and start paying, we should all raise our voice.

Abdoulaye Diallo is Co-Head of Greenpeace International’s Stop Drilling Start Paying project

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By Angela Umoru-David
ABUJA, Nov 21 2024 – It is an already established truth that building partnerships is one of the single most effective ways for African non-profits to attract funding and deepen their impact. So, as an addendum to this article by Tafadzwa and I, here is a guide to finding your match.

Indeed, choosing an organisation to collaborate with can be similar to deciding on a life partner. It does not require the same life commitment but a wrong partnership can significantly hurt your reputation with donors, the trust you have from the community(ies) and even the faith your team members have in you. In some situations, the consequences are not so dire. Perhaps, it may only sidetrack you, forcing you to forge into areas you probably did not intend, and making you lose time or put years of hard work at risk.

So, in broad strokes, how can you find the right partner for your work as an African civil society organisation (CSO) or nonprofit?

1. Put your House in Order: Organisations are often judged on the strength of their corporate governance. While the size of an organisation may influence how robust its processes and procedures are, what is paramount is that irrespective of the size, there is a system and culture of accountability and transparency. The most solid path towards establishing broad community partnerships that ensure long-term grassroots support revolve around legitimacy and structure, as evidenced in your policies, leadership composition, accountability measures and organisational culture. This may seem like an obvious point but African non-profits often start informally as a small initiative to address a problem in the community. Over time, that small initiative morphs into a registered non-governmental organisation, whose leadership is made up of close friends and family members. Even if this works to get the organisation operational, it does not work in the long term. At the barest minimum, every nonprofit should have a diverse and functional board of directors/trustees, well-articulated vision, values and objectives, strategic goals and action plans. These benchmarks help you streamline what kind of partner(s) you need, when you should approach them and how you want to collaborate with them.
2. Be Willing to Collaborate, not Compete: For too long, the funding pool in Africa has pit nonprofits against one another. However, to tap the benefits of partnerships, organisations must be willing to call a truce, and work together in an open, honest relationship. Yet, with so much distrust already being the marker of the nonprofit space, how do we move forward? It really begins with having a different mindset. If more organisations adopt the idea that collaboration, and not competition is the way forward then we will have made considerable progress. But this is not a perfect world and there will always be unscrupulous people so the next few points should give you some protection.
3. Find your Strategic Match: While certain collaborations may be short-term, all partnerships should be strategic (irrespective of time frame). This means that there should be congruence in values, approach to work, complementary (not necessarily exact) thematic areas of work and proven record of value. Before engaging with a prospective partner, it is important to consider what you can also offer the partnering organisation. What would be helpful is to have a predetermined checklist with some must-haves and a few criteria that might be flexible. This also means creating an internal standard for excellence that all prospective partners must abide by. This is why point (1) is too important. If you are not clear about who you are as an organisation or your needs, how will you recognise an organisation that matches your partner profile?
4. Start Small and Take it Slow: You can start from your circle, with organisations that align with your values and whose leadership you can vouch for to a certain degree. Even at that, do not be quick to commit to major projects or sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) without reading the fine print. You can also start with projects that may not require funding (because this often has higher stakes) but things like knowledge/data-sharing, staff exchanges etc. may be somewhere to begin. These low-hanging fruits help you get a feel of what kind of organisation you are dealing with. Lastly, it goes without saying that you request a ‘get-to-know-you’ meeting where you share your histories, policies and procedures with each other (yes, much like a first date) then you can go from there. It is important that you do not accept a partnership under duress and if the organisation refuses to honour this request, then it is possible that they are not the right match for you.
5. Be Diverse and Inclusive in your Search: Too often nonprofit organisations struggle to catch the attention of the more established entities, forgetting that there might be a host of other organisations doing impressive work and who might be reliable partners. It is advisable to cast a wide net. The fact that an organisation is small (or even smaller than yours) does not negate the value they could offer. You can also make an open call for partnerships, highlighting your interest area(s), what you bring to the table and an overview of the kind of organisation you want.

Ultimately, you should remember that the point of finding a partner is to achieve your strategic goals and ensure the sustainability of your organisation while contributing to another organisation. Approaching partnership-building from this perspective strengthens the network of non-profits across the Continent, helps us leverage our internal wealth of resources and weans us off our over-dependence on external funding.

Angela Umoru-David is a creative social impact advocate whose experience cuts across journalism, program design and corporate/development communications, and aims to capture a plurality of views that positively influence the African narrative

By Joyce Chimbi
BAKU, Nov 20 2024 – Migration is growing as the planet gets even hotter. Climate change is fuelling a migration crisis and millions of people in vulnerable nations are continually being uprooted from their homes. The climate and migration nexus are undeniable and the global community has turned to the Baku climate talks for urgent and sustainable solutions.

Ugochi Daniels, the Deputy Director General for Operations at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) spoke to IPS about displacement of people due to the impact of climate change and its different dimensions, such as disaster displacement, labor mobility, as well as planned relocation. She also talked about the magnitude of this pressing problem, as nearly 26 million people were displaced due to the impact of climate change in the last year alone.

“This impact is destroying people’s livelihoods. The farms they used to farm are no longer viable and the land can no longer sustain their livestock. So, people then move, looking for job opportunities elsewhere. Then there is planned relocation, which IOM supports governments to do. When governments know certain communities can no longer adapt as the impact of climate is so great that they are going to have to move, rather than waiting for the climate impact to happen to move and probably not in as organized a way as possible, governments plan for it. That is what we refer to as planned relocation,” she explains.

Ugochi Daniels, the Deputy Director General for Operations at the International Organization for Migration at COP29. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

Stressing that climate migration is on track to be an even bigger global crises, with World Bank estimates showing that “216 million people will be displaced due to the impact of climate by 2050 and that they will be displaced within their countries. Nearly a billion people are living in highly climate-vulnerable areas. Trends are showing that when people are displaced, it is often due to a mix of many factors. So, if a community is hit by an extreme weather event, and at the same time the necessary investments were not made, there is no way for the community to absorb the shock of the extreme weather event.”

Daniels notes that with progressive COPs, each year is also becoming the hottest in recorded history and there are more disasters such as heat waves, droughts, floods and hurricanes. Saying that these issues are increasingly becoming a lived reality for even more people. Further referencing the recent flooding in Spain, in addition to all the disasters unfolding in the developing countries. In turn, this is increasing awareness of the impact of climate change on people.

“Of the estimated 216 million people moving by 2050, nearly half of them are in Africa—86 million in sub-Saharan Africa and 19 million in North Africa. Africa is highly vulnerable amid all the other development issues that the continent is dealing with. And we know that, looking at Africa alone, water stress will affect 700 million people by 2030. The reality is that we are experiencing the impact of climate. We had unprecedented flooding in Nigeria this year and it is not just Nigeria—there is Chad and the Central African Republic and the Eastern Horn of Africa has faced similar events in recent times, and we have the El Niño and La Niña in Southern Africa,” she explains. 

Daniels says they are encouraged and satisfied because human mobility is integrated into submissions for the Global Goal on Adaptation and that they are unified around this issue. There is also the Kampala Declaration on Migration, Environment and Climate Change, which has already been signed by over 40 countries in Africa and the regional groups in the Pacific Island States and the islands have all prioritized the issue as it is their lived reality.

“As IOM, our presence at COP is in supporting member states in raising visibility and awareness on the link between climate change and migration and displacement. Having said that, within the negotiations, and we are still waiting to see what comes out, we hope that this continues. We count on member states in making sure that the impact on vulnerable communities is recognized, that vulnerable communities are prioritized for climate financing, and that migration is factored in as a positive coping strategy for adaptation,” Daniels observes.

She emphasises that “when we talk about displacement, we also have to recognize that as things stand, migrants, through formal and informal means, remit a trillion dollars a year. And a lot of that is going to developing and middle-income countries. And when I met with the diaspora at COP last year, they said to me, ‘We are financing loss and damage now.’ We have seen that remittances have stayed resilient since COVID-19 and continue to go up. So here at COP, it is not just recognition of climate change and human mobility, which has been in the covered decision at least for the last three COPs. But it is also about integrating this into the different instruments and mechanisms, whether it is financing or in the indicators.”

Further speaking to the issue of the operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund. Saying that whereas there are 64 funds globally specific on climate, the Loss and Damage Fund is the only one that has a window specific for vulnerable communities. As member states continue their negotiations, IOM is looking forward to solutions that, for instance, improve access to climate finance, ensuring that in the new financing path, the loss and damage fund supports vulnerable communities to adapt or migrate safely. Emphasising the need for regional cooperation to manage climate-related migration and how climate migration features in the national adaptation plans.

“Importantly, vulnerable communities. need to be part of the solutions. They need to be at the table where these decisions are being made. IOM is one of the—it is actually the only UN organization—that is one of the representative agencies supporting the Loss and Damage Fund and implementation of the fund. Our top priority is the engagement and participation of those most affected so that they have a voice at the table. Well-managed migration is a very effective adaptation strategy. Human civilization has been shaped by migration and this will continue. Climate and other factors will continue to trigger movement,” Daniels says.

“We have the tools. We know what the solutions are. There is the global compact on migration, which is how countries have agreed they will cooperate for better migration management and better migration governance. So, because we know migration has shaped our history and that it will shape our future, we have no excuse for not ensuring that it is safe, dignified, and regular. Whatever we do not do, the traffickers and smugglers will do.”

Stressing that in the process, there will be more people dying, “We will have increased vulnerabilities, and the business model and the industry of trafficking will just continue to grow. So, the urgency for climate action is here and now and there is really no excuse for why we are not collectively working on this. The evidence is there. The solutions are there. The agreements are there too. So, we are here at COP to do our best to ensure it happens.”

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