After the onslaught of Paeng, Oxfam calls for better climate financing

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DAVAO CITY–Following the devastation brought about by Paeng, the international group Oxfam is calling on the global community to rally quality climate finance support for countries like the Philippines that are extremely vulnerable and yet ill-prepared to deal with disasters brought about by climate change.

The call from Oxfam Philippines came following the onslaught of Severe Tropical Storm “Paeng” (international name: Nalgae), which affected 1.9 million individuals and forced 975,000 to take shelter in evacuation centers. At least 98 people have been reported dead while 63 are still missing.

It also came along with the release of the Oxfam report, “Climate Finance in Asia: Assessing the state of climate finance in one of the world’s most climate vulnerable regions.”

“The Philippines, like many other Asian countries, ranks really high in terms of climate vulnerability and really low when it comes to climate readiness, according to our ‘Climate Finance in Asia’ report,” said Oxfam Pilipinas Country Director Lot Felizco in a statement. “Even though we are working on measures to improve our preparedness, every time we are hit by extreme weather events such as ‘Paeng,’ we have to deal with further loss, making it even harder to be ready for the climate crisis,” he added.

Felizco said the Philippines and other climate-vulnerable countries in Asia continued to grapple with the problem of having to face the effects of a climate emergency that “more developed countries have caused and benefited from,” he said. “This is why we are calling for better and sufficient climate finance that would allow countries like the Philippines to adequately face the effects of climate change,” he said.

According to the report, the Philippines ranked 10th among the 18 Asian countries (excluding Singapore, Korea and Japan) in terms of vulnerability and preparedness to climate change.

The ranking based on the Notre-Dame Global Adaptation Initiative Index also shows the Philippines ranking 113th globally out of 182 countries for 2020. “This means it is highly vulnerable but is not as prepared as countries like Singapore or Japan, which rank 6th and 19th respectively.

There is much to be done so countries like the Philippines can catch up with others that are fortunately not as highly vulnerable and at the same time better prepared,” said Felizco. “Climate finance and support from players who contribute the most to climate change are important in correcting injustice and saving the lives of millions of people, especially those in the poorest communities and in marginalized groups,” he said.

According to the Climate Finance in Asia report, Asian countries have seen an annual 28 per cent rise in climate finance to $20.5 billion in 2020 but this increase hides problems that are being mirrored across the world.

The first to analyze climate finance flows worth $113 billion between 2013-2020 in 18 countries across Asia, the report said that despite being home to nearly 4 billion people and half the world’s population, Asian countries only received around 25 percent of reported global financial flows each year.

Asian countries need $1.3 trillion a year from now to 2030 to meet their estimated climate needs and that the amount they received each year was hardly enough.

Only a third of Asia’s climate finance went to help countries adapt and cope with climate-induced harm and only two-thirds of it went on mitigation initiatives.

The majority of flows into Asia came as loans, often forcing already indebted countries to cut public services in order to repay. Only 17 percent of bilateral climate finance and six per cent of multilateral climate finance to Asia came in the form of grants.

The report also said donors almost completely ignored locally-led initiatives – only about 0.5 per cent of all climate finance went directly to local Asian communities, civil society organizations and authorities – giving them less say in how this money was governed.

“Asia is being devastated by climate-driven disaster after disaster, taking lives and costing billions. Pakistan underwater. China and India, baked by 50-degree heat waves, Bangladeshis leaving farmland made unusable by saltwater, the Philippines hit by worsening typhoons,” said Sunil Acharya, Oxfam’s Asia Regional Policy and Campaigns Coordinator.

The report also cited the December 2021 onslaught of Super Typhoon Rai (Odette), killing more than 400 people and resulted in $336 million in losses to agricultural goods, $75 million worth of fishing boats and gear, and $565 million in damage to homes, roads and utility lines.

“This is becoming an irreversible humanitarian crisis across Asia where half the population already live below the poverty-line. People are nearing the limits of what they can do to cope,” Acharya said. “They need more help, not debt, and more say in how it happens.”

The Philippines is 5th among Asian countries surveyed in the Oxfam report that received the highest amount of climate finance. However, the report said that the $7.8 billion (P380 billion) received from 2013 to 2020 was mostly from debt instruments. Of the annual average of $972 million (P48.6 billion) worth of climate finance received by the Philippines, more than half or $528 million (P26.4 billion) were from concessional debt instruments while $364 million (P18.2 billion) were from non-concessional debt instruments.

“We are forced to look rather cynically at the climate financing of the multinational institutions because the majority of their money is winding up as Asian foreign debt. It’s difficult for Asian countries to maintain health and education budgets when they’re taking on more debt to pay for climate damage that they did little to cause,” Acharya said.

The report recommended that developed countries should increase their adaptation funding to each Asian country by 2025 to align with the Glasgow Climate Pact of doubling adaptation finance overall, and focus on providing grants rather than loans. No funds lent at market rates should be counted as climate finance, the Oxfam report said.

“Asia’s climate finance providers and governments need to reassess climate finance in a way that is genuinely pro-poor, locally-led, and targeted to help women and girls who are shouldering the bulk of climate risk and harm,” Acharya said. “Climate finance must be transparent, (can be) easily track(ed down) and spent in ways in which people who are most affected are able to genuinely participate in decision making processes,” he added.

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