Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths Remarks at the COP27 High-Level Round Table on Climate change and the sustainability of vulnerable communities - Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, 8 November 2022

As prepared for delivery

Excellences

Honourable Prime Ministers

Ladies and Gentlemen

Thank you very much for giving me the chance to speak today.
I come here representing the global humanitarian community which I have the honour to coordinate and on whose behalf I advocate.

I want to focus my remarks on the humanitarian community's perspectives on climate change, on our insights, on our obligations and responsibilities. And on some of the ways we think, from that experience, we can better support people crushed by climate change.

The humanitarian community is defined by its global presence, by the primacy of the communities we serve, and by the courage and commitment of its members, notably of the local and national organizations on the frontlines.

This means that we have the privilege to be witnesses to the terrible and undeserved impacts of climate change. We see these first-hand. And because with privilege comes responsibility, we seek, at our best, to support those communities whose lives are snatched away, and whose way of life is threatened.

None of the people I’ve met during my travels has contributed to the climate crisis. In fact, as we meet here in beautiful Sharm El-Sheikh, I’m reminded that we are on the continent that has the lowest total greenhouse gas emissions and the lowest per capita emissions.

Isn’t it the worst of ironies and the most blatant of injustices that the communities least responsible for the climate crisis are the most likely to suffer its consequences, and the least likely to receive climate financing to adapt and recover from its impact?

Ladies and gentlemen,

The humanitarian community can offer a path to the experience of local communities to understand how we can, collectively, do better. We’re there where the needs are most acute.
We’re providing immediate support. We’re getting better at anticipating disasters so communities can prepare and respond before shocks hit. We’re finding ways to build longer-term resilience, even while we meet lifesaving needs. And we have the tools and know-how to deliver fast, effective funds to local organizations operating in the most fragile places.

But the pace and scale of change is rapidly outstripping our ability to respond, stretching an overburdened humanitarian system to breaking point.

That’s why I want to be clear that I’m not here to seek funding for humanitarian work. The climate crisis is not a crisis that the humanitarian system can solve. The number of people hit by climate-related disasters has doubled in the last two decades. Yet the funding needed this year to respond to the world’s escalating humanitarian crises is short by a staggering 60 per cent.
We need your climate funding for the work that will remove the need for humanitarian assistance.

Because the countries paying the price for the reckless behaviour of my generation and the inaction of the big polluters are done waiting. They need climate money - not tomorrow, not in three years, they need it now.

Ladies and gentlemen,

What people on the frontlines need from this COP is a paradigm shift to ensure that desperately needed resources get to the right place at the right time.
Here’s how it could be done:

First, as others here have noted, the finance pledged to developing countries must be delivered in full. And half of it must be spent on helping people adapt to the changes that are already baked in.

Second, we must stop moving money from development to climate to humanitarian budget lines.
We urgently need to find new sources of finance so that these sectors can work together. We need more funding for resilience and adaptation because less resilience today means more humanitarian need tomorrow.

Friends, in an average of just 12 days, the six largest oil and gas companies generated enough profit to cover humanitarian needs worldwide for an entire year, according to data from Oxfam.
That means one day’s oil profits could fund a year’s worth of aid in Afghanistan or Ukraine.
Why must people in Somalia starve as a result of climate catastrophe, when ample money is filling the pockets of those responsible for ravaging the environment?

This seems immoral and unjust to me. I unreservedly echo the Secretary-General’s call for a windfall tax on oil and gas profits.

Third, I urge the G20 to follow through on its commitment to reallocate US$100 billion in Special Drawing Rights to low-income countries and to step up the Common Framework that enables countries with unsustainable debts to restructure them. Countries must be able to afford the critical investments needed to adapt to climate change. I also want to be clear that the middleincome countries facing a systemic risk because of climate change also need far better support.

Without loans on better terms, the Pakistans, Fijis, Barbados and Kenyas of this world will have more and more trouble bouncing back from crises.

Fourth, Governments must urgently fund early warning and early action. When early warning systems are linked to effective anticipatory action, they can reduce suffering and the financial costs of humanitarian action.

Finally, countries must pledge funds for loss and damage. The impacts of the crisis are now so severe that for many, adapting is no longer an option. They desperately need help now.

Thank you.