H.E. Kenyeh Barlay Minister of Planning and Economic Development of Sierra Leone and Chair g7+ Building Resilience through scaling up climate action in fragile and conflict-affected settings

At the outset, let me express on behalf of the g7+ group our profound gratitude to the COP28 presidency, the government and people of United Arab Emirates for hosting us at this auspicious event.  I also thank the presidency for co-hosting this high-level side meeting on Building Resilience through scaling up climate action in fragile and conflict-affected settings.

We commend the leadership of the presidency in launching a day dedicated to Relief, Recovery and Peace. This initiative is close to the hearts people in g7+ group who live in contexts of conflict, fragility and vulnerability.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.

As the world is facing concurrent crises, few of them are as existential and intractable for the world as climate change. Decades of international negotiations on climate change have yielded little action that would slow climate change. In addition to economic interest that hold developed countries back from reaching consensus on targets to controlling carbon emission, their resilience against climate shocks have made them less sensitive to the severity of climate change.  On the other end of the development quantum is the countries in fragile situation that are least responsible for climate change; yet they are rapidly becoming warmer and are feeling the brunt of climate related shocks such as droughts, floods and extreme weather changes.

Extreme hunger, poverty, displacement and environmental degradation are among the most frequent headlines in conflict affected countries. Every report on the impact of climate change confirms that conflict affected courtiers are on the top of the list of most affected countries whereas they account least for emission. According to the global hunger index, out of 44 countries that face alarming levels of hunger, 40 are classified as fragile. An IMF study finds that climate change inflicts more lasting macroeconomic costs in fragile countries.  Their inability and lack of sufficient resources to cope with the consequences causes displacement, loss of livelihoods and poverty that persist over time.

The impacts of climate change further put pressure on limited resources that are at the disposal of the state and communities. As a result, and due to increased competition for water, land and agriculture, the threat of conflict increases among the communities that further disrupt the already fragile peace and stability. This complicated interplay of climate change, poverty, conflict and fragility push countries into a vicious circle of vulnerability.

It is against this context that we believe that the declaration on climate, relief, recovery and peace launched a while ago is crucial for the survival of conflict affected countries and their people.

However, the realization of commitments made in the declaration will require political will and paradigm shift in our policies to build resilience. Therefore, we are hopeful that today’s discussion results in menu of solutions that can help us all identify ways to realize the ambition we have set in the declaration.

Therefore, I would like to conclude my remarks by sharing our collective aspiration of the g7+ in 2 points:

First:

The declaration launched today should constitute policy inputs in the global discourse on building resilience in conflict affected countries through accelerated actions and finances. We hope that the ambition demonstrated in endorsing the declaration by number of countries and states is maintained in its retaliation.  The g7+ group commits to maintain this partnership in realizing the declaration together with the COP28 presidency and other partners.

Second:

Building resilience requires in conflict affected countries require a nexus approach that includes consideration for building peace, stability and institutions through an integrated approach. By now the nexus approach has become a normative phenomenon in theory. However, we need to realize this in approach in action.

Third and last:

Building resilience and coping capacity in fragile countries require increased financial resources.   According to the recent reports fragile countries face severe financing gap they only receive 1/80th of per capita of climate financing in comparison to non-fragile contexts. This also relates to the structural challenges of the global financial system. We hope that climate finances reach those people who are most in need and policies in accessing them are relaxed for conflict affected countries that need special attention.

With that, I thank you and wish you a productive deliberation.