Remarks by Ahmed M. Saeed, ADB Vice-President, Operations 2, at the UN Security Council Meeting on Climate Finance for Sustaining Peace and Security, 9 March 2022, New York
Thank you, your Excellency, and thank you to the Permanent Mission of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations for inviting the Asian Development Bank’s input.
The intersection between climate-driven pressures and the goals of peace and security is something that is already well-established. As we have learned from two years of dealing with COVID-19, such pressures can evolve rapidly and unpredictably, leading to consequences at local, regional, and global levels.
The need for climate finance is critical.
At the Asian Development Bank, we have raised our climate ambition to $100 billion of financing between 2019 and 2030. Interim measures like climate financing targets are important guideposts but they are also insufficient because climate change is a matter of collective success or collective failure. It is simply not good enough for a single organization to be a “good actor.” The only thing that will matter for future generations is whether we collectively succeeded or failed.
In this connection, I would like to make two points:
First, there is a need for an evidence-based approach to ensuring that climate finance is prioritized for maximum impact. This matters because in many cases, it is not the lack of finance that is a binding constraint, it is the lack of good projects that can be transformative for both climate and security.
This is all the more important in fragile and conflict-affected situations.
How can we use technology and mapping to identify where the effect of climate change will create the social and economic upheaval threatening peace, stability, and security? How can we use these tools and interpret the results in a way that helps direct climate finance to where it is most needed to reduce fragility and to mitigate climate risk?
Here at the Asian Development Bank, in partnership with the European Space Agency, we are developing Satellite Earth Observation platforms and monitoring programs to map at a nationwide-level, the course of meteorological and agricultural drought that may generate internal displacement of people in fragile and conflict-affected situations. This effort will include data analytics delivery in countries where ADB collaborates with other UN organizations.
I believe there are many other well-intentioned, competent, credible, and aligned actors in this space. However, there is a need for coordination towards a common shared outcome. In fragile and conflict-affected states, institutional strengthening is also needed to be better prepared for accessing and implementing such climate finance.
Second, because my area of responsibility at the Asian Development Bank includes the Pacific, I want to highlight the unique challenges these countries face given the structural fragility of Pacific atolls and micro-states confronting an existential threat from sea-level rise. These states are in a class of their own in terms of the likely impact of climate change on their security and wellbeing. They have essentially no capacity for internal relocation and resettlement. There is no higher ground to which they can retreat. With continued sea level rise, some of these states will very likely become de-territorialized, a situation that is unprecedented and that will challenge both our existing international laws as well as our current models of development assistance. These states in the Pacific sit at the very front line and need accelerated support for adaptation to ensure their security going forward.
In the Pacific, ADB supports multi-hazard disaster risk assessments. In Tonga, for example, these incorporate an analysis of climate change impact. The resulting information identifies both high-risk areas, as well as locations that are relatively safe from disaster shocks and climate stresses. The information provides an evidence base to design adaptation pathways, resilient investment plans, and projects to mobilize resources for adaptation.
In conclusion, I would like to stress that the Asian Development Bank, as a multilateral development bank, looks forward to working with all of you, and especially with the United Arab Emirates as host of COP28 on these critical global and regional public goods.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to be with you today.