The President of Marshall Islands Her Excellency Hilda Heine has called for a shift in ambition on climate finance to address the cost of the climate crisis. Photo credit: IISD/ENB.
The Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI), a nation of coral atolls only two metres above sea level at its highest point, has voiced its cause at COP29 to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Baku, Azerbaijan.
President of Marshall Islands Her Excellency Hilda Heine, has called for a shift in ambition on climate finance to address the cost of the climate crisis, threatening lives in her beloved country.
“With the explosive increase in the cost of the climate crisis, it is obvious to everyone that the system isn’t working,” President Heine says.
“We can no longer afford to be unrealistic and unresponsive about the costs of the crisis – which we all know are in the trillions of dollars per year.
“Anyone who is here to fight over who pays for just a small share of those needs, rather than engage in a collective effort to find the trillions, is no friend to islands like mine.
“Nor can we afford empty promises.
“Those that have benefitted from extraction have an obligation to provide the climate finance that is desperately and urgently needed.”
President Heine spoke during the first part of the high-level segment of COP29 in Baku earlier this week, after UN Secretary-General António Guterres had taken the same stage and called for immediate steps to cut emissions, safeguard people from climate chaos, and “tear down the walls to climate finance.”
He noted 2024 is almost certain to be the hottest year ever recorded.
“The sound you hear is the ticking clock,” Secretary General Guterres says.
“We are in the final countdown to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. And time is not on our side.”
President Heine echoes the call, reminding those listening that the Marshallese people are navigators.
“It is in our blood to know when the tide is turning,” she says.
“On climate, the tide is turning today.
“It is no longer a question of whether the energy transition will occur, but how.
“Will it be fair and inclusive? Will it be fast enough? Will those that defy our agreement to transition away from fossil fuels, and go home to pump more oil, extract more gas, and mine more coal be held to account?
“Time will judge those that fail to make the transition.
“Some may fail because of denial and delusion – the misplaced idea that their country, somehow, will be immune.
“The fallacy that their short-term interests are worth the destruction on their doorstep, and that they will escape without blame.
“Others risk falling behind because they lack the resources to make the transition happen.”
COP29 started with the opening plenary on Monday, only to be abruptly suspended to allow for additional consultations on the meeting agendas.
Resumption of the plenary was repeatedly delayed, leaving delegates idle for most of the day.
President Heine called for a common commitment to solve the greatest challenge of our time.
“We can no longer afford to base our hope on an international financial architecture that holds us in the past.
“That perpetuates inequality.
“There is no shortage of proposals for how to reform these institutions. What has been missing is the willingness to make it happen.”
For RMI and Pacific countries, one of the biggest issues at COP29 is the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG).
“We need a new collective quantified goal that sets us on a path to adapt and protect our communities, drive down our emissions, and respond to the ever-increasing loss and damage,” President Heine says.
“That starts with making it crystal clear what climate finance is not: it is not market rate loans, and it is definitely not finance that funds fossil fuel production.
“We must also turn the commitment to specific protections for small island developing states into reality and ensure that there is a minimum floor of finance that flows to our islands.”
It is estimated that one-third of Marshallese have left to seek jobs and escape climate impacts, not only sea level rise but increased droughts, heatwaves and saltwater intrusion in the past five years, according to research.
However, the Government and the people of RMI are not just waiting for help.
The President has highlighted her country’s National Adaptation Plan, setting out a pathway for RMI to become resilient in the face of the climate crisis.
She has also announced her country will soon submit a new, enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Science confirms the lived reality of climate change for the Marshall Islands.
The projected one-metre sea level rise in the coming decades would permanently flood 40 percent of buildings in Majuro and see some islands disappear beneath the water, according to a 2021 World Bank study.
“It is time to fortify faith and trust in this process that we have created together to solve the climate crisis,” President Heine adds.
“In our Marshallese culture and traditions, we have a saying ‘Wa Kuk Wa Jimor’, which literally means we are all on the same canoe, and that we must all work together if we are to reach our destination.
“Our world demands that we steer our canoe of humanity to reach a future that is safe and secure for generations to come.”
