Pacific nations reminded the world’s climate negotiations body that a fair, engaged and transparent process is central to the work they do

A point of order intervention from Pacific and other global islands voices in climate talks in Germany last week has rippled around the world.

Pacific nations at the current Bonn prep meetings for COP27 have reminded the world’s climate negotiations body, the UNFCCC, that a fair, engaged and transparent process is central to the work they do. 

Members of the Alliance of Small Islands States, (AOSIS), which includes the Pacific Small Island Developing States  (PSIDS) dominated the opening of the Glasgow Dialogue on Loss and Damage, making a “point of order” intervention right at the start of the dialogue objecting to what they say is an unfair, non-consultative and prolonged process.

Earlier in the session, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa together with the Co-Chairs of the two Subsidiary bodies under the Convention, outlined the series of dialogues starting now and ending in 2024. The problem? Initial discussions did not allow for inputs from party members.

Kathy Kijiner, from the Republic of the Marshall Islands, called it when delivering the statement on behalf of PSIDS: “We weren’t consulted on the Glasgow Dialogue agenda or guiding questions. Please, let us use this dialogue to speak on issues taking our land and our lives away from us.

The Pacific demands that one of the outcomes of this dialogue process is the establishment of a Finance Facility for Loss and Damage by COP27. It must be fit for purpose, be regionally appropriate, and emerge from the fact that no climate finance facility existing today even comes close to the scale of resources required to address loss and damage.” She said.

This story was originally published at PIFS on 12 June 2022, reposted via PACNEWS.