HI present at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 29)

COP 29: 'The finance COP'

On 11 November, the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 29) kicked off. Delegates from around the world including world leaders, climate experts and negotiators have convened in Baku, Azerbaijan, for two weeks of pivotal climate diplomacy. Negotiations will aim to advance a range of key issues building from the progress made at COP 28. Among the key points on the negotiation agenda is global climate financing. More specifically, how to ensure climate finance better addresses the climate action needs of low-income countries who did the least to contribute to climate change, while being the most impacted by it and the least prepared. The outcome of COP 29 in this regard could be transformative for developing countries, providing them with increased means and resources to adapt to current and future climate impacts, to pursue climate-resilient development pathways, and to compensate for the irreversible loss and damage they’ve already suffered.

 
HI at COP29

In parallel to official negotiations, governments, international governmental and non-governmental organisations, private sector, academia, and other climate action advocates will also have space to showcase their work, share knowledge and discuss a range of critical climate change issues not necessarily part of the official COP agenda. As an observer organisation to the UNFCCC since 2022, HI will be among them with specific key messages to push forward. For the third time now, HI will attend the climate summit to call for:

Better integration of disability rights into climate action

More than 1 billion people with disabilities are disproportionately and differentially negatively affected by the climate crisis, especially in the Global South where they are over-represented. Discrimination, poverty, inadequate access to services and lack of representation exacerbates their vulnerability and exposure to the many worsening impacts of climate change. They are at much higher risk of losing their life and of being injured when climate disasters strike due to inaccessible warning information and emergency management procedures. Climate disasters also disrupt the healthcare systems they critically rely on, further threatening their health and wellbeing. Heatwave episodes will more severely impact persons with certain disability types and conditions, with an increased risk of death. Persons with disabilities also risk being pushed further into poverty because of climate change, due to lack of access to education and opportunities to transition to climate-resilient livelihoods. These are just some of the ways climate change disproportionately impacts persons with disabilities, yet they have been largely invisible in climate change policy and practice to date. To ensure their rights are protected in the context of climate change, it is urgent for governments and climate action practitioners to:

• Specifically refer to persons with disabilities, the barriers they face, and the solutions required in COP outcome documents and any climate policy or plan.
• Meaningfully involve persons with disabilities and other marginalised groups in climate negotiations and climate consultations happening at various levels.
• Ensure full accessibility of all things climate-related, from physical accessibility of buildings where climate decision-making happens, to accessible information and communications about climate change. More generally, universal design should be applied in efforts to promote greener, sustainable and low-carbon infrastructure, transportation, and job opportunities so they leave no one behind.
• Earmark funding for disability-inclusive climate action initiatives that promote leadership roles for persons with disabilities and their representative organisations, build their capacity, and consider intersecting identities.

More ambitious climate action and finance for countries affected by both conflict and climate change

Last year at COP 28 in Dubai, an ambitious Climate, Relief, Recovery and Peace Declaration was adopted to increase and improve climate action and resources for climate-vulnerable countries also threatened or affected by fragility or conflict. Designed by a wide spectrum of climate, development, humanitarian, and peace building actors, the Declaration brought to the fore the intersection of climate, conflict and fragility that is driving unprecedented humanitarian needs and intensifying insecurity around the world. Indeed, climate change can indirectly increase the risk of conflict by exacerbating existing social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities and factors that usually drive conflict. In turn, conflict and fragility can fuel the climate crisis by weakening countries and communities’ abilities to plan and implement climate solutions.

As an actor actively engaged in both Armed Violence Reduction and Climate Resilience, and responding to humanitarian crises in fragile and conflict affected settings, HI calls for continued momentum on the topic of climate, conflict and fragility, and for bold commitments to implement the Declaration’s package of solutions, including but not limited to:

• Conflict-sensitive approaches should be incorporated across all climate, humanitarian and development actions - whether policy, programming or funding oriented – to help ensure they do not aggravate existing tensions and promote social cohesion and peacebuilding. Robust conflict and context analyses should support conflict-sensitive climate programming and help adjust interventions.
• The climate finance gap for fragile and conflict-affected countries needs to be closed, as they currently receive less than 1% of total flows in climate adaptation financing while experiencing heightened climate vulnerability. In closing this gap, climate finance should also reach and include diverse local actors, from local governments to local civil society representing vulnerable and marginalised groups.
• Climate finance in Fragile and Conflict affected settings should support programming that meaningfully includes the most vulnerable populations and communities, and addresses their underlying factors of vulnerability. Critical, integrated strategies and activities that help build resilience should be promoted and scaled up, such as disaster risk reduction, preparedness, early warning and anticipatory action for climate hazards, livelihoods support, protection, health, and conflict transformation.

Promoting resilient and sustainable health systems able to tackle the climate and health nexus

After WHO resolution and the Declaration on Climate and Health signed by more than 150 countries last year in Dubai, the health community will be present at the COP again.

The goal of the health community is to keep the momentum for making health facilities and the whole supply chain ready to offer quality services in the aftermath of climate related disasters and harnessing the power of health workforce to prevent the worst health outcomes of the climate crisis.
 
As reported by the prestigious scientific journal The Lancet in their recent report looking at 52 indicators annually across the planet, heat waves, air pollution, and biodiversity loss are threating human health. Because of inequities, most vulnerable group and persons with disabilities with health conditions or in need of continuous care and rehabilitation are the most at risk.
 
In the first day of COP29, WHO launched its special report on climate change and health: Health is the argument for climate action. The report strongly call for ending fossil fuel reliance and ensure people-centred adaptation and resilience and prioritizing health in national climate plans. Climate crisis, said WHO, is a public health crisis and human health and well-being are the top measure of climate action success. For HI, this should be foster together with inclusive health to ensure that health response to climate crisis is also disability inclusive.

HI’s climate action

 HI actively works to increase the adaptive capacity and resilience of vulnerable communities severely affected by the sudden and progressive effects of climate change. Across Latin America and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, HI supports vulnerable communities and marginalized groups in their efforts to manage climate disaster risks, and cope with the multiple cascading effects of climate change on their daily life. In addition to supporting vulnerable communities in the field, HI has committed to adopting more eco-friendly practices in its operations and significantly cutting its CO2eq emissions by 2030.