Aga Khan Network warns climate finance cannot come at the expense of the poorest

The Director of Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development of the Aga Khan Development Network warned this Friday that urgent climate finance cannot come at the expense of the poorest people who are most affected by the changes.

“On the philanthropic side, very little is being done to address climate change, but what worries me is that this cannot be done by funding the poorest people,” said Paul Dhalla.

The official spoke at a meeting on the role of Portuguese foundations in the position on climate change, which took place this Friday in the Portuguese pavilion at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), taking place in Dubai.

Asked about the role of philanthropy, Paul Dhalla stressed that climate finance is urgent, but recalled that it is the poorest people who suffer the most from the effects of climate change.

“I don’t want climate finance to divert funds away from the poorest people. These must be additional resources,” he added.

On the same topic, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s director of sustainable development, Louise Hooper, also highlighted the need for increased private funding and warned of the urgency of tackling climate change, saying that “without a functional planet, everything else will not work.”

In a discussion on the role of foundations, in which the Aga Khan Development Network, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Serralves Foundation contributed their work, one of the main consensuses was the importance of knowledge as well as people’s participation.

“It’s important that everyone gets involved in the fight for climate and nature,” says Louise Hooper, who understands that greater knowledge or awareness does not necessarily translate into action.

Therefore, he added, the foundation looks for projects that “get people to act,” placing a strong emphasis on social science to understand how people behave and what makes them act.

“What we do every day is raise awareness of education through various strategies,” said Rui Costa, director of resources and special projects at the Serralves Foundation, who emphasized the potential of art, music and contact with nature as bridges to the fight against climate change.

On the other hand, Paul Dhalla warned against putting too much pressure on individual action and highlighted the dangers of “climate anxiety.”

“Clearly we need to worry about the crisis, but the danger of talking about the crisis without solutions is that we create anxiety about the climate, and this can lead to apathy and inaction,” he explained, adding that “there are solutions for everything we need.” [se fala]” and that “political issues go far beyond the capabilities of man.”