Responding to the announcement that the Scottish Government has pledged £1 million (NZ$1.9 million) for ‘loss and damage’, Jamie Livingstone, Head of Oxfam Scotland, said:
“The First Minister’s announcement today is ground breaking recognition that funding to help certain people adapt to the climate crisis is utterly useless when their entire community has been wiped off the map.
“This announcement is welcome acknowledgement that for some communities around the world, talk of limiting the damage of climate change has already come far, far too late. In many places, climate change has already caused irreversible damage to people’s homes, lives and livelihoods. Despite this grim truth; world leaders have continued to duck calls to establish a new funding mechanism for loss and damage. Other countries must now follow Scotland’s lead and offer dedicated financial support to countries where lives have already been lost and ruined because of climate change.”
In addition, Alex Johnston, Oxfam Aotearoa Campaign Lead, said:
“We congratulate Scotland for recognising the devastating impacts of climate change on climate vulnerable countries, and being the first developed nation to commit to making an explicit financial contribution to tackling the loss and damage climate breakdown creates.
“Pacific Islands have been calling for loss and damage finance to be addressed globally for over 30 years. Despite efforts to adapt, climate-charged cyclones and flooding causes asset losses worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the Pacific each year. It is crucial other world leaders follow suit and recognise that these events need distinct funds to recover from.
“We call for the New Zealand government to follow Scotland’s lead and scale up financial support to existing loss and damage finance solutions in the Pacific with new commitments, and label this support as loss and damage, not adaptation finance. The government should also align with Pacific Island Countries’ positions on loss and damage at COP26 to get a global response to this issue.”
