UN climate chief renews plea for national plans

Every bit of preparation against climate change impacts makes the difference between life and death for millions of people around the world, UN climate chief Simon Stiell stressed.

- Shabana Begum

His remarks at the UN climate change summit (COP29) in Azerbaijan on Nov 18 come as the Philippines was ravaged by its sixth tropical storm in less than a month.

Super Typhoon Man-yi slammed into highly populated Luzon on Nov 17, killing at least eight people and triggering landslides, destroying houses and knocking out power lines. The six severe storms have taken more than 160 lives and impacted over 10 million people, and caused damage worth an estimated 470 million pesos (S$10 million).

Speaking at a high-level event on climate adaptation, Mr Stiell noted that nearly half of the human population live in climate vulnerability hot spots, where people are 15 times more likely to die from climate impacts.

"Personally, I find this deeply disturbing, highly offensive," he said.

Even as he made a renewed plea for countries - especially the most vulnerable ones - to start planning for climate change, Mr Stiell called for more innovative financing to channel money to countries that need to build resilience against climate impacts.

"We can no longer rely on small streams of finance. We need torrents of funding. They need to be easier to access, especially for the most vulnerable countries that often face the biggest barriers," he said.

Countries previously agreed to have their national adaptation plans ready by 2025, to be implemented by 2030.

Such plans lay out a country's medium- and long-term solutions to limit the impact of climate change on communities.