PAKISTANIS today exist amidst destruction. A third of my country is underwater, and adds to crippling economic woes. This is all for a crime we didn鈥檛 commit.
We aren鈥檛 alone. Across the African continent, millions of people are living through the pangs of a postcolonial trauma that resurfaces with every and .
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All of us in the Global South (a term for lower-income, often decolonised, nations mainly in the southern part of the world) the same thing: relief. The push for loss and damage payments, also known as climate reparations, has gained momentum like never before. We have inherited a scorched Earth. The time for justice has come.
The developments at the COP27 summit resulted in a historic agreement to set up a loss and damage fund. It was a landmark success for the Global South 鈥� until we read the fine print. So far, the by years of exploitation and high levels of carbon emissions 鈥� have yet to pledge a dime to the fund. After all, contributing to it is .
Countries like and Belgium will pay climate reparations, though it could be argued that this amount doesn鈥檛 even begin to cover the losses incurred by the Global South during colonial rule.
In fact, it will be a year before we learn where the funds will come from and who will receive them. This makes it a proposition sadly reminiscent of the pledge to lower-income countries for climate change adaptation at COP26, which has yet to materialise, let alone meet the in climate change-related damage incurred by just 55 countries in the Global South in the past 20 years.
It is this ambiguity and lack of commitment that has proved that those of us in the Global South can鈥檛 pin our hopes for survival on the world鈥檚 wealthiest setting off to an Egyptian resort on private jets. If we have learned anything from COP27, it is that lower-income countries need to take more drastic measures when lobbying to ensure their survival. No one else seems very concerned.
Loss and damage might have had some success at the summit, but action on emissions and fossil fuel consumption didn鈥檛 materialise. Meanwhile, initiatives like Global Shield 鈥� by G7 nations and intended to help fund low-income countries in the event of climate disaster 鈥� put climate financing in the hands of the private sector, essentially acting as an insurance policy against environmental damage. Of course, pick up the .
Choosing to skip COP27, Greta Thunberg the lack of 鈥渕oral and political leadership on the climate crisis鈥�. Perhaps it is time for the Global South to fill these gaps. For instance, faith-led environmentalism made waves at the of faith leaders in Indonesia, where secretary general Mohammed Al-Issa for the international community to engage faith leaders in pioneering a global opinion shift on climate action, driven by moral leadership.
Still, symbolic leadership, while powerful, won鈥檛 compel high-income countries to pay their dues. It is also time to consider political and economic action. The that enriches high-income countries is in Africa, Asia and South America. Why not mobilise the collective leverage of the G77 鈥� which broadly covers the Global South 鈥� to demand reasonable conditions for climate justice?
The voices for justice in the Global South must remain loud and united long after COP27. Centuries of exploitation, followed by apathy and indifference, are condemning us to extinction. But we don鈥檛 owe anyone the favour of slipping away quietly.
Zareen Zahid Qureshi is聽manager of Poverty Eradication Initiative in聽Pakistan
