COP29: “We cannot afford to wait any longer”

With just a few days to go before crunch time at COP29 in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, Senator Shantal Munro-Knight, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office of Barbados, told OCHA: “We cannot afford to wait any longer.”

For the first time in 15 years, countries must set a new global climate finance goal to replace the US$100 billion annual target set in 2009. The new collective quantified goal (NCQG) on climate finance comes into force in 2025. 

“Climate impacts are accelerating and so must the solutions,” said Munro-Knight. “Barbados, for example, already has comprehensive adaptation and resilience plans ready to go. We’ve done the work, we know where investment is needed – but without sustained, affordable financing, these plans remain on paper.”

Record-breaking extreme events

How much longer can the world’s most vulnerable people sustain themselves against the impact of searing temperatures? 2024 broke so many extreme weather records: the hottest year ever recorded; the hottest month; the hottest three consecutive days; thermometer-shattering heatwaves; intense droughts; and powerful storms and floods, the likes of which some countries had not seen in decades. 

The climate crisis is already driving huge increases in humanitarian needs worldwide. 

Many of the affected people live in extremely vulnerable countries, such as Bangladesh, Barbados, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, Nepal, South Sudan and Sudan.

Of the 16 countries most at risk from climate change, 11 have humanitarian appeals for urgent assistance. 

This Monday, 11 November, they will make their case at COP29 for more support and resources.

Along with civil society representatives, the countries will also call for a more concerted global effort to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C and avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Here is a quick recap of some of this year’s biggest and most tragic extreme weather events.

Searing heatwaves worldwide

Syria and other countries across Asia experienced record-breaking heat this summer. Scores of people died in Saudi Arabia and India.

Human-caused climate change made this heatwave twice as likely, confirmed a study led by World Weather Attribution (WWA), an initiative formed by leading global climate researchers. The study also notes that the climate crisis will make such heatwaves longer and more frequent and extreme.

People are now forced to find ways to survive the extreme heat. Rasmiya Al-Muhammad, who has spent the last decade in Al-Hamra camp for internally displaced people in Syria’s Idleb governorate, shared her solution: 

“We put the sheets in the hot tank water and shake them in the air to cool them. Then we cover ourselves, the children and everyone, and within seconds the sheets dry.”

WWA noted that between May 2023 and May 2024, 76 extreme heatwaves were recorded in 90 countries. During that period, 6.3 billion people (about 78 per cent of the global population) experienced at least 31 days of extreme heat.

Women and children fill water from their community tap in their flooded neighbourhood in Rann, a town in Borno, Nigeria. Photo: OCHA/Chima Onwe

Catastrophic floods in Central and West Africa

More than 7 million people across 16 countries in the Central and West Africa region have been affected by incessant rains that caused catastrophic flooding. At least 1,500 people died and nearly 1 million people are displaced.

Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Niger and Nigeria account for 80 per cent of all people affected. The floods, which also caused Nigeria’s Alau dam to collapse, are compounding existing challenges resulting from conflicts and previous extreme weather events.

"Three people helped me escape the floods," Fatima Umar, a mother of three with a severe disability, told OCHA’s Una Brosnan. Fatima and her children were at home on 10 September when the Alau dam collapsed, triggering flooding across the main towns in north-east Nigeria’s Borno State.

A new WWA study said human-caused climate change worsened the floods, and they could occur on average every 3 to 10 years. 

Aftermath of Hurricane Beryl in Petite Martinique, Grenada. The hurricane caused severe damage to infrastructure, services and livelihoods in Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Jamaica. Photo: UN/Arthur Daniel

Hurricane Beryl

As the earliest Category 5 Atlantic hurricane, Hurricane Beryl took everyone by surprise; it transformed from a tropical storm to a major hurricane in less than 48 hours.

This rapid intensity left Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – the countries on Beryl’s most direct path – with little time to prepare for its 1 July landfall, wrote OCHA’s Marc Belanger.

He spoke with 15-year-old Amari from Union Island, who admitted not taking the hurricane seriously until his family saw the howling white sheet of piercing rain headed their way.

“Union Island was a nice island. Beryl just destroyed everything,” he said.

Aid workers assess a damaged hotel used as a shelter in Carriacou, Grenada. Photo: OCHA/Jolene Muir

Floods in Nepal

Heavy and continuous rain in Nepal triggered extensive damage, killing more than 200 people. It led to widespread flooding, landslides and road blockages, severely disrupting transportation, agriculture, livelihoods and public safety.

As the floods intensified on 29 September, the OCHA-managed Central Emergency Response Fund allocated $3.4 million to act ahead to prevent the worst impact on some of the most vulnerable people.

Rapid urbanization and climate change were the key drivers of this extreme event, according to WWA. 

After the heavy downpours, members of a rescue team from the Nepal security forces conduct a search and rescue operation following a landslide at Jhyaple Khola, Dhading District, Nepal, 29 September 2024. Photo: UN Nepal/Narendra Shrestha

Floods in South Sudan and Sudan

Both countries endured heavy rains and floods. South Sudan’s rains affected 1.4 million people and displaced about 375,000. With roads submerged, humanitarian aid still faces delays as responders work in challenging conditions to reach affected communities.

A WWA study said the event in Sudan and the extreme rains in Lake Chad and Niger Basin are “not rare in today’s climate, which is 1.3 °C warmer than it would have been at the beginning of the industrial period.” 

Rains of this magnitude are expected about once every 3 years in Sudan, once in 10 years in Lake Chad and once every 5 years in Niger.

Pupils wade through water after heavy rainfalls flooded Rotriak Primary School in South Sudan's Unity State. Photo: OCHA/Alex Oleksandr

What COP29 needs to deliver

Longer-term investments in resilience are desperately needed in communities affected by conflict and fragility. But climate adaptation is drastically underfunded and not reaching the most vulnerable people at remotely the speed or scale required.

Greg Puley, Head of OCHA’s Climate Team, said: “At COP29, the UN and the wider aid community will advocate for a climate finance architecture that is better adapted to supporting communities in crisis and that makes greater investments in humanitarian contexts.”

Sudanese climate change activist Nisreen Elsaim said: “The one critical thing the world needs to deliver at COP29 is a clear and actionable mechanism to scale up climate finance that prioritizes the most vulnerable countries – climate and conflicted affected – like Sudan. This would help address the immediate impacts of climate change while also building long-term resilience.”

Munro-Knight of Barbados pointed out that COP29 presents “a unique and critical moment to make the commitment that Small Island Developing States [SIDS] like Barbados desperately need.” 

She added: “We are calling for something transformative – a new standard of climate finance that is larger, more affordable and structured to last. To be clear, this means securing an additional $300 billion annually in funding that is both concessional and, in some cases, delivered as grants for vulnerable States.”

Most traditional financing falls woefully short of meeting accelerating needs. 

“High-interest loans only add to our debt burden, making it harder to recover after every extreme weather event,” said Munro-Knight. “What we need is accessible, affordable financing, with low interest rates and 50-year repayment periods, that reflects the unique vulnerabilities of SIDS and allows us to build resilient infrastructure, adapt our economies and protect our communities for the long term.”

She underlined that this “aligns with the global push” for an NCQG on climate finance, which the Alliance of Small Island States has “championed to ensure that funding for adaptation, resilience and mitigation is available to the countries who need it most. At COP29, the world needs to deliver on this vision… Our futures depend on it.”

Mary Nyamondo, who lives in Kenya’s Nyando - Kisumu County, lost her cows to floods this year. A cash transfer from WFP through CERF helped her pay her children’s school fees, buy food and other essentials. A part of the money also helped her to start a small business. Photo: OCHA/Jane Kiiru

This article was first published by OCHA