Climate records are tumbling like dominoes. The summer of 2024 was the hottest on record, breaking the ceiling of 2023: extreme heat smothered multiple continents and ocean temperature rose to alarming highs, triggering devastating storms and spurring dire warnings about the impacts of climate change. Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and severity, claiming lives, destroying houses and infrastructure, and bringing the economies of affected communities to their knees.

CARE calls for a substantial New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) to support developing countries, which bear the brunt of climate change-induced disasters, to cover adaptation, loss and damage and mitigation, and ensure inclusive and just transition pathways. The new goal must include a loss and damage sub-goal to address irreversible impacts that go beyond what can be mitigated or adapted to.

The operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund at COP28 in Dubai marked a breakthrough and a landmark in climate justice. Yet, the pledges first, and the contributions afterwards, have been paltry: without a serious commitment from developed countries, the Fund risks to remain an empty shell.

Marlene Achoki, Global Policy Lead at CARE Climate Justice Centre   

“The cost of climate inaction is higher than the cost of climate action. Parties must reset the balance and increase the funding for adaptation, and loss and damage, with strict interim targets. NCQG negotiations must agree upon a fit-for-purpose, needs- and rights-based climate finance goal to close the climate finance gap, with grants replacing loans to break the cycle of debt and unlock true potential for sustainable development. It is critical Parties agree on an inclusive climate action that empowers women and girls putting them at the forefront of decision-making processes.”

John Nordbo, Senior Climate Advisor at CARE Denmark    

“The current climate finance target of $100 billion is fundamentally flawed. Wealthy countries count loans at market rates, commercial activities, and even investments in coal-fired power stations and airport expansions as climate finance. The goal to be adopted at COP29 must be 10 times higher — at $1 trillion annually – in public climate finance, as only true support should count. The impacts of today’s extreme weather show clearly that the true climate debt owed to developing countries is far larger than developed countries has so far been ready to pay. The money is there, what lacks is political will.”

Mrityunjoy Das, Deputy Director, Humanitarian and Climate Action Program, CARE Bangladesh  

“Shocks and stresses are ever increasing, and addressing loss and damage is critical for climate vulnerable countries like Bangladesh. The country is the world’s seventh most climate-vulnerable, and the economic loss of climate change-induced shocks is enormous: in 2016-2021, they eroded between 0.8 to 1.1 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Loss and damage’s compensation is critical to climate justice, and it is a right for affected communities, especially in the global south who are paying the price of a climate crisis they are least responsible for.”

Founded in 1945 with the creation of the CARE Package®, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE places special focus on working alongside women and girls. Equipped with the proper resources, women and girls have the power to lift whole families and entire communities out of poverty. In 2023, CARE worked in 109 countries, reaching 167 million people through more than 1,600 projects. To learn more, visit CARE International | CARE works to fight poverty and achieve social justice. (care-international.org)

The CARE Climate Justice Center (CJC), headquartered in The Hague, The Netherlands, leads and coordinates the integration of climate justice and resilience across CARE’s development and humanitarian work. To learn more, visit www.careclimatechange.org