Joint Statement betwen PACJA and Her Excellence, the Former President of Malawi, Joyce Banda, Good will Ambassador for Cyclone Freddy Recovery

Pan African Climate Justice Alliance

and

Her Excellence, the Former President of Malawi, Joyce Banda, Good will Ambassador for Cyclone Freddy Recovery

Nairobi; April 28, 2023

Premise of the statement

This Statement is jointly released by the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), and Her Excellence Joyce Banda, Former President of the Republic of Malawi in her capacity as the Goodwill Ambassador of Cyclone Freddy Recovery of the Republic of Malawi. The Statement draws its strength from successful bilateral talks that took place in the offices of PACJA, in Nairobi today.

We take into cognizant of the broad and long-lasting impacts of cyclone Freddy on the people and the government of Malawi, the efforts of people and the government of Malawi in addressing its impacts and the long-term response measures that are needed in addressing this crisis. The cyclone claimed the lives of 676 people  while 537 went missing as 15 District Councils of Southern Malawi were swamped. We have no uncertainties on what caused cyclone Freddy. It is no longer a humanitarian issue, it is a climate change-triggered catastrophe, which is not the first one in Malawi, and Southern Africa. We suffered, together with neighbouring countries in Southern Africa, massive loss of lives and property in 2019 when Hurricane Kenneth swept across the region.

We acknowledge PACJA’s effort to spotlight Malawi and Southern Africa as the embodiment of Loss and Damage advocacy, inspired by the unfortunate challenges the region is facing occasioned by climate-fuelled events. In the last two years, the Alliance has facilitated the convening of two Africa-wide conferences in Lilongwe, Malawi and its advocacy efforts has sustained the loss and damage agenda up in the global arena.  Though we secured a groudbreaking Decision on Loss and Damage during the COP27 in Egypt last year, We are worried by the technicalities and procrastination at play in the international climate policy processes. Women, girls and those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change are concerned that the Global community is taking long to agree on the modalities to make the Loss and Damage Facility work, so as to help them overcome Cyclone Freddy and other events, which are increasing in frequency.

Our common position

Collectively, we believe Africa, and Malawi in particular, is paying the cost for climate change caused by rich countries’ actions. Vulnerable people in Africa are paying double-price, having been colonized and their resources used in the Wests’ road to current level of development.

The unssutainable modes of production and consumption has visited the untold suffering by the same victims of systemic deprivation, who have seen promises after promises broken by rich countries. Mitigation remains a priority for Powerful countries and their multinational corporations whereas Adaptation, the central priority for Africa, has been obscured by the prevailing market-based interests. We seek honest and genuine partnership in the global effort to address climate crisis. And address it should not be viewed as a favour or charity for Africa and its people – all of us, whether rich and poor, men and women, the powerful and the powrless, are sailing in the same boat, and once it capsizes, all of us will perish. Malawians are perishing today. And tomorrow, it will be those in the West!

As the global community, we should draw lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic response, which saw the mobilisation of trillions of Dollars for vaccine development and reconstruction. And the question we ask ourselves is this: if, within a record time, the global community was able to mobilise such funds in a short time, why is it difficult to raise similar amount of resources to tackle a crisis of similar proportion? The answer, as usual, could be that the climate crisis is a problem for Malawi and Africa, and therefore doesn’t bother rich countries. We insist that for the Loss and Damage Facility to make meaning to vulnerable people in Malawi and Africa, it ought to be new,  predictable and adequately resourced and should be additional to existing Funds, and not just repackaged existing humanitarian support as loss and damage.

Our call for action:

In introspecting the Loss and Damage context in Malawi, the continent of Africa and the global governance landscape, here is our call for the global community:

1. The UN should, as a matter of urgency, as we witness it responding to other emergencies, mobilize and deploy resources to support Malawi and other African countries facing similar climate-triggered disasters, as they institute measures to implement national readiness programmes for loss and damage to enhance capacity for country-level leadership in coordinated response.
2. Urgently deliver on the facility for financing loss and damage alongside adaptation actions.  Adaptation finance must be scaled to trigger much more investments on locally-led adaptation actions, promoting greater trickle-down of resources to communities at the frontline of climate crisis and support long-term post-disaster recovery and resilience.
3. The burden of response cannot be transferred to the victims of climate crisis, in this case Malawians, through the recently-introduced taxation measures. Accountability for climate action on the part of the developed countries will be demonstrated through their establishment of carbon-based taxation measures for corporates fuelling the crisis through dirty energy, and related value chains with 50% of the profits being taxed and ring-fenced for the Loss and Damage Facility, and being made available to communities at the receiving end of the problem they have not caused. We take cognizant of the polluter-pays principle as the guiding principle in reparations for climate injustices.
4. Funding for Loss and Damage should be principally from public funds. Africa is against loans in addressing losses and damages. To this end, we denounce the application of business investment mechanisms such as the Global Shield for responding to Loss and Damage.  The Facility and funding arrangements need to follow the principles of equity, justice, common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) and must be Party-driven, where decisions are agreed by consensus.
5. Powerful countries in the North should not use their clout in UNFCCC -COP28 to delay the functionality of L&D Facility through flimsy, self-serving, procrastination and technocratic arguments that are devoid of accountability commitment to millions of people in Malawi, Africa and elsewhere in the world who have waited for years for such a Fund to materialize. In this regard, we urge the Transitional Committee, as a demonstration of good-faith, to recommend inaugural call for replenishment of the L&D at COP28  as well as appointment of a Board for the Facility.
6. In addition to providing adequate finance for L&D and adaptation for Africa as their fair share on climate action, developed countries should be persuaded to deeply cut their emissions are demanded by science and climate justice.

And moving forward:

We have resolved in our meeting to strengthen PACJA and Government of Malawi collaboration through the Office of GoodWill Ambassador for Cyclone Freddy, HE Joyce Banda.

1. That we shall work jointly in actions that foster global cooperation for urgency to tackle Cyclone Freddy in Malawi, and overall climate-triggered emergencies in Africa and globally.
2. Excited by the prospects of Malawi being the embodiment of Loss and damage advocacy, thank HE Joyce Banda for accepting to be added another title, Goodwill Ambassador for loss and damage for Africa. We hope this will amplify the voice of mothers, girls and women leaders in Africa, and ensure the visibility of our priorities are not obscured by issues of lesser concern, but which are made a priority by those capable of controlling international geopolitical agenda.

Signed in Nairobi

 Day: 28^th April 2023

Dr. Mithika Mwenda

HE Joyce Banda

Former President, Malawi & Cyclone Freddy Ambassador

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