LocationsOf Loss and Damage in Small Island Developing States
And then the rains came…
May 24, 2024
In December 2023, heavy rainfall in Seychelles caused severe damage to roads, flooding, and landslides, with damage to several properties and three people died.
UNDP Seychelles / Jean-Yan Norbert
As forecasted in October 2023, by the Mauritius Meteorological Services Seasonal Outlook of Summer 2023-2024 “extreme weather events in the form of warm spells, heavy/torrential rain, violent thunderstorms, electric storms, mini tornadoes, rapid intensification of tropical cyclones may occur”. A series of cyclones caused significant flooding, infrastructure and other damage with cyclone Belal drenching Mauritius in January 2024. In Seychelles, a state of emergency was declared in December 2023 due to major destruction caused by flooding due to heavy rains, causing severe damage to roads, flooding, and landslides resulting in damage to several properties and causing the death of three people, followed by severe flooding and landslides after heavy rains in March 2024. Heavy rains continued for both countries well into March 2024.
As noted in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR6 Synthesis Report Climate Change 2023 “[h]uman-caused climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe. This has led to widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people”. The United Nations Environment Programme quotes an estimate “that between 2000 and 2019, the world suffered at least $2.8 trillion in loss and damage from climate change – costing around $16 million per hour”. For Small Island Developing States like Seychelles and Mauritius, increasingly intense rains have the potential to erode the gains in mitigation of the impact of climate change and at the very least have degraded the adaptation investment already made to build resilience, with low lying coastal roads inundated, and beach reclamation efforts regressed. The full costs loss and damage are yet to be known.
Increasingly intense rains have the potential to erode the gains in mitigation to address the causes of climate change and at the very least have degraded the adaptation investment already made to build resilience to the impacts of climate change.
UNDP Seychelles / Jean-Yan Norbert
Who Pays for Loss and Damage?
The question remains how to pay for this loss and damage caused by global environmental realities? One way is through a loss and damage facility. COP28 achieved this long awaited ask by operationalising a Loss and Damage Fund (LDF) in December 2023. As noted by the United Nations Development Programme Administrator Achim Steiner, the fund is designed to provide support to nations affected by climate related disasters, and to “help those suffering most from the effects of climate change whilst being the least responsible.” The World Bank is tasked with role of fund trustee and hosting the secretariat for an interim period of 4 years.
Access for Small Island Developing States
The non-profit Heinrich Boll Stiftung analysis “The Loss and Damage Fund Board: Getting it Right from the Start” rightly flags key issues for consideration for the fund to be effective, including optimizing the mix of grant and concessional financing, and the method and speed of disbursement, all of which are of relevance to SIDS. For Seychelles and Mauritius, as noted in my previous blog, ranked as high income and upper middle-income, respectively, they have limited access to concessional financing. While there is a positive provision in the LDF Section IX article 60(f) which provides for a “minimum percentage allocation floor for the least developed countries and small island developing states”; the international finance architecture, including climate finance, can be complex and challenging to meet eligibility requirements. It follows that the eligibility criteria, financing mechanisms and triggers to be established for access to the LDF in accordance with the Governing Instrument (See Annex 1 Sections IV – VIII) will be key to addressing these barriers for these two countries which, while not amongst the least developed, nonetheless remain severely impacted by loss and damage from climate change.
It follows that the eligibility criteria, financing mechanisms and triggers to be established for access to the LDF will be key to addressing these barriers for these two countries which, while not amongst the least developed, nonetheless remain severely impacted by loss and damage from climate change.
The fourth UN International Conference on Small Island Developing States in Antigua and Barbuda, 27-30 May 2024 (SIDS4) will include an interactive dialogue on Making Climate Finance Work for SIDS: Building on the Outcomes of UNFCCC COP28. With the current limited LDF resources available set against high demand, navigating the current barriers to SIDS access is a critical discussion. The dialogue background paper sets out key recommendations including proposing a SIDS Financing Compact to acknowledge specific SIDS vulnerability and for new instruments including the Loss and Damage Fund be “operationalized expeditiously and funding arrangements to specifically consider SIDS needs”. As Noted by Achim Steiner “[t]his critical issue of freeing up sufficient finance to address the climate crisis will be the focus of next year’s COP. But we cannot wait another year. Investments need to happen now. It is time for a surge in finance, including for mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, and reform of the international financial architecture.”