There is a live version of Desolation Row on volume 4 of Bob Dylan’s bootleg series. It is from a recording of his famous Manchester Free Trade Hall concert in 1966. I love it. I’ve been listening to it a lot over the last few days.
In other words, I’m feeling the melancholy that washes over me every time another UN climate circus comes to town, underwhelms us, and then leaves.
Across the street they've nailed the curtains, they're getting ready for the feast
The Phantom of the Opera in a perfect image of a priest
They are spoon feeding Casanova to get him to feel more assured
Then they'll kill him with self-confidence after poisoning him with words
And the Phantom's shouting to skinny girls, "Get outta here if you don't know"
Casanova is just being punished for going to Desolation Row"
I’ll leave you to decide who I think the ‘Phantom’, the ‘Casanova’, and the ‘skinny girls’ are. You can also decide for yourself who is, and isn’t invited to the ‘feast’ - I’ll give you a clue, it wasn’t the marginalised mountain people of the global South.
Anyway, enough of the cryptic. Here’s a run down of the ‘progress’ made on adaptation at COP26.
The Gathering Storm
First, some context. On November 1st, UNEP released their annual ‘Adaptation Gap’ report. It was was titled ‘The Gathering Storm’. Here are some of the cold facts it told us [emphasis added]:
The costs of adaptation are likely in the higher end of an estimated USD 140-300 billion per year by 2030 and USD 280-500 billion per year by 2050 for developing countries only.
Climate finance flowing to developing countries for mitigation and adaptation planning and implementation reached USD 79.6 billion in 2019.
*It is important to note here that only USD 20 billion of that USD 79.6 billion was earmarked for adaptation.
Estimated adaptation costs in developing countries are five to ten times greater than current public adaptation finance flows. The adaptation finance gap is widening.
Four things of note happened at COP26:
Adaptation was higher up the agenda for delegates, activists, and negotiators at COP26, than at any previous COP meeting. It is only going to keep moving up agenda and the media (which in the main continued to ignore it) will soon have to start covering it in depth. Our Great Adaptations project will continue to advocate for this.
Here are the four main outcomes from COP26 on adaptation specifically:
The Glasgow–Sharm el-Sheikh work programme was announced. It will give some substance to the Adaptation goal of the Paris Agreement. Amongst other things, this work programme will strive to develop a set of indicators to help policymakers and funding agencies assess the success of adaptation projects. This is something that is much less straightforward to do than you’d expect. So it is good that the nettle has finally been grasped.
There were pledges from Developed nations to increase their contributions to the Adaptation Fund, it is being roughly tripled compared to three years ago, it will now be USD 356 million / year, compared to USD 116 million / year.
The Adaptation Research Alliance (ARA) was officially launched. ARA is a group of over 90 organisations from 30 economies driving research and innovation for adaptation that strengthens resilience where it is needed most.
There was also a commitment to double adaptation finance, so that by 2025 it is double the 2019 levels. The COP26 1/CMA.3 draft text ‘Urges developed country Parties to at least double their collective provision of climate finance for adaptation to developing country Parties from 2019 levels by 2025, in the context of achieving a balance between mitigation and adaptation in the provision of scaled-up financial resources.’
Given that adaptation finance was only USD 20 billion in 2019, an increase to USD 40 billion in 2025 does not put adaptation finance on the pathway to the ‘USD 140-300 billion per year by 2030’ amount that UNEP calculate is needed (see The Gathering Storm).
Loss and damage
Funds for adaptation are not quite the same as funds to compensate for the losses and damage caused by climate change. They are, however, close cousins and so it is worth noting here what happened.
A proposal for setting up a ‘Glasgow Loss and Damage Facility’ was submitted by all the 138 developing countries representing 5 billion people. This was first time requests for compensation for loss and damage have ever been looked at ‘officially’ at a COP.
The proposal, which if adopted would establish a fund to ensure developed nations began to pay back their climate debt. It made it into early drafts of the final text, and was there right up until late on Friday. However, overnight, after interventions by the EU, US and UK, the UK presidency was cajoled into deleting the facility from the text.
This, understandably, sparked outrage and nearly led to the collapse of the entire process. In the end, when the gavel came down on late Saturday afternoon, the only thing committed to in the final ‘Glasgow Pact’ is a ‘dialogue’ on loss and damage.
Our view is this: There has been enough talk, the case for compensation couldn’t be more clear. Global South nations are owed money for the reckless damage being done to them by the polluters of the global North. The creation of a Loss and Damage Facility must be at the top of the priority list for COP27. And it should be non-negotiable for global South leaders.
How you can help
The people of Nepal, who are on the front line of climate breakdown, will have watched COP26 and concluded that the leaders of Developed world are not coming to save them. Sadly, it appears, they are right. USD 40 billion sounds like a lot, but it isn’t, and it won’t go very far. The last-minute refusal to include a Loss and Damage Facility is a travesty and a betrayal.
However, the ordinary people of the Developed world continue to show their solidarity. They are stepping in to enable adaptation projects that just won’t happen if we rely on the paltry flow of adaptation finance from the UNFCCC process.
By becoming a supporter of The Glacier Trust you can show your solidarity. So please step in, the people of Nepal need us now, they can’t wait until 2025, or 2030, for funds to materialise from central banks. Climate change is hitting them now and they need to adapt now.
Please set up a £10 monthly donation today to enable a Nepalese family to adapt to climate change.
100% of the money you donate will be spent on project work in Nepal.
Thank you.