By Eddah Waithaka
The Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), along with its dedicated allies and partners, is taking a firm stand on the Loss and Damage Agenda, emphasizing the collective voice of Non-State Actors across Africa. In a bold declaration, they assert a position of No Negotiation on the Loss and Damage Agenda unless the recent decision to establish the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage (SNLD) in Geneva, Switzerland, is overturned.
In a press statement issued on November 18, the Non-State Actors said, “We refuse to be accomplices in the global injustice system that wields and exercises unjust power and arm-twisting tactics to do the unthinkable, alter the fundamentals of inclusive participation, sound decision making and cost-effective action.”
Earlier this year, the Advisory Board convened in Switzerland with a clear objective to review the technical report prepared by UNOPS-UNDRR regarding cost-effectiveness.
This report included a detailed cost-benefit analysis of various global locations being considered as potential sites for the head office of the Secretariat, drawing from a diverse pool of candidates for the SNLD.
The assessment process conducted by UNOPS and UNDRR strongly endorsed Nairobi as the best choice for hosting the Network. This conclusion was reached through a comprehensive analysis that employed scientifically validated methodologies, comparing Nairobi against other shortlisted locations, including Addis Ababa, Bonn, and Geneva.
However, cartels in climate diplomacy tactfully connived and veered off from the task and conveniently massacred the recommendations of the UNOPS-UNDRR report. The departure from the UNOPs-UNDRR report by the Advisory Board of the SNLD and their
blatant and contemptuously choice of Geneva, which was ranked third in the analysis, is a clear indication of the conspiracy against those most impacted by climate change.
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This decision is a reaffirmation of the North’s questionable commitmment to climate action as it concentrates power, through the location of climate response institutions in developed countries.
The only climate response institution that embodies the struggles of the communities at the frontline of climate crisis, and whose location should symbolise the very palpable rationale of tackling Loss and Damage has once again been unjustly snatched from a deserving developing
country through a clandestinely nefarious process of manipulation, carrot-dangling and intimidation.
The Advisory Board, if at all they deserve the title, turned a blind eye on what the network is meant to deliver, further concentrating institutions of climate governance, particulraly on loss and damage in the North.
This decision by the Board is an epitome of sustained conspiracy by developed countries to keep climate response measures remote to African and other developing nations who ought to be at
the centre of the capacity strengthening support of the SNLD.
“Our Previous cry for rescinding this decision has been ignored by the board and now it is the turn of the parties to UNFCCC to demonstrate credibility of their processes. Probably it is a strategic
tact by the North to delay climate action and meaningful action targeting those suffering irreparable losses,” read the press statement.
Now in pursuit of justice, greater transparency and accountability to the developing nations, condemn the decision; declare the Advisory Board’s decision a nullity and:
1. Call on the Parties to UNFCCC to redeem their glory and with immediate effect, reverse this ill-intentioned decision and adopt the recommendations from UNOPS-UNDRR that unanimously picked Nairobi as the host of the SNLD.
2. We continue to urge the parties to the UNFCCC to go beyond rhetoric, to foster the
principles of climate justice, CBDR-C, human rights including children’s rights, and gender equality, in addressing Loss and Damage.
“We remain disturbed by the quality of leadership we are vesting in critical bodies such as the SNLD that cannot relate the suffering of communities due to losses and damages in a country such as Malawi that experiences perpetual cyclones and the far removed, high-end location of the SNLD.”
https://pacja.org/reverse-injustices-of-santiago-network-on-loss-damage/
