Ms. Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator: Accelerating Climate Action and Finance to Countries and Communities Facing Multifaceted Crises

COP28 Side Event

Accelerating Climate Action and Finance to Countries and Communities Facing Multifaceted Crises: Launch of the COP28 Declaration on Climate, Relief, Recovery and Peace

Dubai, 3 December 2023

As delivered

First, I want to thank the United Arab Emirates as co-President for driving this Declaration, and I thank all those who have collaborated on and endorsed the Declaration. It is timely and relevant.

The humanitarian impacts of climate change are already with us – and they are devastating. In the last 20 years, we have seen a staggering 800 per cent increase in climate-related needs in humanitarian appeals. In many cases, climate change is overtaking other factors as the predominant driver of humanitarian need.

The effects are hitting sadly the vulnerable countries and communities first, worst and longest: countries that have often contributed the least to climate change. And they are hitting countries often riven by years of conflict, economic strife and underdevelopment.

The Declaration says all of the right things about closing the climate finance gap for fragile and conflict-affected communities. But the most important thing now is, as articulated by others, to take concrete steps to put these words into action.

The humanitarian system cannot be a solution to climate change, but we are committed to playing our part. We are endorsing the Declaration and we will contribute to the Package of Solutions in three ways.

First, we will use the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to channel more support to communities affected by climate-related disasters.

Second, OCHA will facilitate, mainstream and scale up collective anticipatory action. We will use the OCHA-managed pooled funds to pre-arrange finance for collective anticipatory action, including a guiding figure of investing 10 per cent of CERF’s annual spending on anticipatory action.

Third, we will deepen our coordination with partners on the ground, to reach across our humanitarian, development and climate silos and make sure that communities affected by climate disasters get all the support they need to recover, adapt and build resilience.

Thank you.