The Cost of Delay

Despite 31 years of pressure, 26 COPs and multiple workshops and dialogues, no dedicated finance to help people deal with the aftermath of climate impacts – also known as ‘finance to address Loss and Damage’ – has been delivered under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Such finance would have made a significant difference to the lives of people on the frontlines of climate-fuelled events, reducing climate-induced poverty and freeing up national budgets. In this briefing, we show how the countries which are historically responsible for the majority of emissions have repeatedly delayed progress on securing Loss and Damage finance while emissions and fossil fuel profits have risen, and how the costs of delay manifest themselves in developing countries and communities bearing the brunt of the climate crisis.

The delay in mobilising finance for addressing loss and damage has seriously cost developing countries, resulting  in very real impacts on the ground and in the lives of billions  of people. As a result of soaring emissions and intensifying extreme climate- and weather-related events, lives and livelihoods have been lost and progress already made on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is being undermined. This cannot continue.