News has it that recent projections from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimate that climate-related losses could reach 4 per cent of Fiji’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2100 unless urgent action is taken.
That’s another 76 years before that or worse or maybe less bad happens. But let’s look at the significance of such projections and numbers.
News also has it that Fiji’s representatives have outlined Fiji’s approaches to finance climate resilience, including the Environment and Climate Adaptation Levy (ECAL), which funds critical work to protect natural resources, lower carbon emissions and adapt infrastructure.
All that sounds good on paper, like almost everything else does.
The world is indeed fighting a phenomenon that is climate change. We have the proponents of the theory which puts human activity as the cause, and then we have proponents of the same theory without human reasons.
I won’t dare get into that kachkach lest I be stung by proponents of either or both theories!
So, regardless of how it came about, if climate change is projected to affect our GDP by 4 per ceent in the next 76 years, then we have ample time to grow our GDP by a consistent percentage each year, or each election term, or each 5-year DP, or okay, every 20-year DP to be able to ensure that we are still do-ing good after 76 years.
I could pen equally convincing pieces, both for and against climate change. I wonder how many of those on that COP29 trip could do that. Essay writing is indeed an art, and journal writing is a trade for those who continue to milk mil-lions and billions from the theory on the global stage.
If Fiji could also successfully lobby for a decent share of the milk, that is real money, we could build those hundreds of sea walls to protect vulnerable communities. I choked on my coffee when I read that the talk going on in Baku was in the trillions!
COP30 will have its own theme and narratives, and plenty individuals and organizations will have become a million or so dollars richer between COP29 and COP30.
What matters is how much actual funding will come Fiji’s way from whoever is dishing it out. We could send the same size contingent next year, or double that, or maybe ten people who know the scientific side of the phenomenon to the next COP.
I read somewhere that it’s not the size of the dog in the fight that matters, but the size of the fight in the dog that matters.
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