Climate activists call for reparations on Finance Day at COP27

Climate activists protested at the headquarters of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh on Finance Day, the first thematic day of discussions on the COP27 agenda. 

The protesters are calling for just finance and reparations from the rich and developed countries to the developing nations that are the most vulnerable to climate crises. The protesters who were present from several African and Asian countries were given a permit to protest at 9:00 a.m. against the lack of seriousness when it comes to financing eco-friendly and adaptation programs. Some demonstrators represented some climate NGOs like Friends of the Earth Japan and the Indus Consortium for Humanitarian, Environmental and Development Initiatives.

COP27’s Finance Day tackles the challenges and opportunities for financing climate programs, like adaptation programs, for those who are on the frontline of climate change. The day’s panels discussed different topics related to finance, such as the Role of Central Banks in Sustainable Finance and the Role of Platforms to Ensure a Just Transition.

“Finance is important for everything [like] mitigation and adaptation and loss and damage, so demanding finances is imperative to implement the NDCs. […] leaders, especially the developed countries’ leaders, must increase their commitments and deliver the money they had committed before,” Ayumi Fukakusa, a protestor from Friends of Earth Japan, told Jusoor Post at the COP27 Blue Zone.

She said that the NGOs called upon leaders of countries like Japan, which “are responsible for climate change,” to pay. “There were always demands from the most affected for money, and negotiations were blocked and the developed countries did not recognize the responsibility to pay, but now there is an agenda on the loss and damage and finance,” she added.

Fiza Naz Qureshi, manager of program implementation for the Indus Consortium for Humanitarian, Environmental and Development Initiatives, is on the same page, saying that there is a lot of need to emphasize this, because previously “we have observed and experienced more finances in fossil fuels, which have really deteriorated our globe and our countries.” The Indus Consortium consists of 60 civil society organizations working on climate justice, green financing, and energy transitions in Pakistan. 

She added that her country is facing devastating rain floods, and although its carbon emissions are low, at 0.08 percent of global emissions, it is among the top ten counties most affected by climate change. 

“More than 3 million people are affected by these rain flood disasters, and ultimately this is the matter of finance, because the big financiers like ADB (Asian Development Bank), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and Paris Climate Club are financing hugely in projects of fossil fuels all over the world, and that is impacting the developing countries, and they are also financing in our countries in fossil gas and fossil coal projects instead of renewables,” Qureshi said.

She urged the financiers and the multilateral development banks all over the world to transit the funds towards renewables instead of fossil fuels.

She also called upon Asian development banks, which have started the process of the transition mechanism in Pakistan along with Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam, to support early retirement of the coals in a just, transitional manner.

“We are not stopping them from earning money. They should earn money. They should get the profit, but in a cleaner manner,” Qureshi said.