THE YIDINJI PROPOSITION FOR A JUST REBALANCE
Dr Jane Stanley and Kerry McGovern, EAROPH Australia
Introduction
The Yidinji Declaration on Climate Justice was developed at a workshop held in Cairns during April 2023, supported by the Eastern Regional Organisation for Planning and Human Settlements (EAROPH). A video presentation on the Declaration is available here.
The Declaration was promoted at various international gatherings including COP 28, and has received much support. It is now appropriate to build on the Declaration to develop practical proposals for achieving Climate Justice. This requires a rebalance of resources between communities creating carbon pollution in favour of those most adversely affected, so that appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures can be undertaken.
COP 28 made notable progress towards developing a global Loss & Damages funding mechanism, with in-principle agreements being reached between many of the carbon polluting countries. There have also been some discussions around how such funding might be allocated. However the work to date suggests a very cumbersome process that may exclude the possibility for small nations to present successful claims. There does not appear to have been any consideration given to how a Loss & Damages mechanism might apply to communities within the same country, for example addressing adverse climate impacts on remote Indigenous communities.
EAROPH is now convening the second Yidinji workshop on June 21 2024 at JCU campus in Cairns, to develop practical proposals that can be advocated to the Australian Government and other national and international stakeholders.
Background for developing the Yidinji Proposition
In November 2022, the The United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27 agreed to provide “loss and damage” funding for vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters. This aims to address the impacts on communities whose lives and livelihoods have been ruined by the very worst impacts of climate change. In November 2023, COP28 operationalised the Loss and Damages Fund to assist developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. USD661.39 million was pledged to the fund.
As part of the Paris Agreement in 2018, developed countries agreed to the goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion of “new and additional” funding—finance that is over and above what would have been provided otherwise—through various sources and financial flows in the context of meaningful climate change adaptation and mitigation actions.
(https://www.wgea.org/work-packages/work-package-3-wgea-focus-area-climate-finance/ )
SDG13 requires that countries Take Urgent Action to Combat Climate Change and its Impacts, and the SDG Report Special Edition 2023 referred to the UNFCCC analysis that found developing countries’ needs amount to nearly $USD6 trillion by 2030 to meet their NDCs. The 2023 SDG Report said “Reconstructing climate finance delivery schemes and designing a new climate finance goal in 2024 are the next milestones to urgently improve both the quantity and the quality of climate finance going forward.” (https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2023/The Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2023.pdf p 39 )
Read the full report here.