Reverse Injustices of Santiago Network on Loss & Damage

Baku, Azerbaijan; November 18, 2024 Press Statement on SNLD COP29 – ENGLISH     Communique de presse sur l’emplacement du fonds de pertes et dommages – FRENCH

Pan Africa Climate Justice Alliance, its allies and partners, representing the active agency of Non-State Actors from across Africa, asserts a position of No Negotiation on the Loss and Damage Agenda unless the decision to locate the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage (SNLD) in Geneva, Switzerland, is rescinded.

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.

The Advisory Board meeting in Switzerland early this year had a simple task –  to consider the technical report by the UNOPS-UNDRR on cost-effectiveness, including a cost-benefit analysis of various locations around the world as options for the location of the head office of the Secretariat from a pool of potential locations for the SNLD.

The UNOPs/UNDER-led assessment process strongly recommended Nairobi as the optimal location to host the Network based on thorough analysis using scientifically-proven methodologies from a shortlist of various other locations such as 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.

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 rescnding 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.

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.

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