350 Aotearoa says NZ should be embarrassed for announcing just $10m in loss & damage. Today’s announcement is half of what NZ announced last year and will come from an existing finance commitment – meaning there is no new or additional funding.
350 Aotearoa campaigner Adam Currie says: “Today’s announcement looks good, but it comes from New Zealand’s existing climate finance, which is for adaptation and mitigation. It is crucial that financing for loss and damage is new and additional to adaptation, mitigation and overseas aid funding. There is a severe funding shortfall – countries are suffering irreversible damage in the climate crisis.”
“Aotearoa is a whānaunga to frontline Pacific Island Nations suffering from climate impacts. As a wealthy, high-emitting country, NZ should be backing our whānaunga by allocating much more significant – and additional – loss and damage funding”.
The announcement comes at a time when climate-induced economic losses have already cost 55 developing countries well over half a trillion dollars this century.1
It also comes a day after public submissions opened on the Treaty Principles Bill, which alone will cost half of the funds announced today for loss and damage.2
The government currently spends over $300 million dollars a year subsidising pollution through free industrial allocations for multinationals like Rio Tinto and Methanex. “Today’s loss and damage commitment is less than 2% of the subsidies that companies who are responsible for more than 10% of our emissions receive. This is unacceptable.” says Currie
Two years ago at COP27, NZ received a ‘Fossil of the Day’ award, for hypocrisy in advocating to delay the creation of the Fund just days after pledging L&D finance. NZ has won a ‘Fossil of the Day’ award for three COPs running (COP26, COP27 and COP28 – or 2021, 2022 and 2023).
2 https://union.org.nz/millions-wasted-on-treaty-principles-bill/