Latest news with #CorporateAccountability
Zawya
4 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
4 solutions for companies to overcome the hidden costs of AI
The hidden cost of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fast becoming the next frontier in corporate accountability. As the technology continues to expand rapidly, without urgent intervention, its environmental footprint could outpace the very benefits it promises. Claire Bradbury, sustainability lead for Accenture, Africa says AI is expanding rapidly, and without urgent intervention, its environmental footprint could outpace the very benefits it promises. She offers four solutions (Image supplied) AI is no longer just a tool for progress — it's fast becoming a test of responsibility. As South African companies race to harness artificial intelligence for innovation and growth, few are asking the most critical question: at what environmental cost? Behind every breakthrough model lies a surge in electricity demand, water use, and carbon emissions — realities that can no longer be dismissed as side effects. A new problem This is not a future problem. It's a now problem. In a country already grappling with grid instability and water scarcity, South African boardrooms can't afford to treat AI sustainability as an afterthought. If we're serious about building a digital future, we must ensure it's one the planet can sustain. Across the globe, generative AI is expanding at a blistering pace, bringing with it massive compute demands, energy surges, and water-intensive data centres. Our latest research estimates that by 2030, AI workloads could consume more than 600 terawatt-hours of electricity annually. That's equivalent to the energy used by hundreds of millions of homes. More troubling still, the water required to cool data centres especially in regions that already face water scarcity could reach crisis levels. In South Africa, we are already living with the twin pressures of unreliable electricity and severe water stress. And yet, local enterprises are racing to adopt AI without asking the crucial question: how sustainable is this growth? The uncomfortable reality The uncomfortable reality is that if we don't course-correct now, AI will push us closer to climate instability even as it helps us solve other problems. It's the ultimate contradiction using a future-forward tool with a 20th-century energy model. That contradiction must be resolved. And it starts with accountability. Every South African organisation that embraces AI must do so with full visibility into the environmental cost and a commitment to minimising it. 4 solutions Fortunately, the solutions are within reach. - Smarter silicon New computer architectures like Processing-In-Memory (PIM) and Compute-In-Memory (CIM) can dramatically reduce the energy intensity of AI operations. Instead of constantly shuttling data between memory and processing units, an energy-hungry exercise, these chips perform computation directly within memory, cutting power consumption significantly. That's not a tech detail. That's a sustainability breakthrough. - Geography of your data. AI workloads must be located where clean, affordable energy is available. That might mean shifting some operations to regions with high solar penetration or hydro capacity. In South Africa, we can't afford to run advanced AI models on coal-fired power. It's inefficient, it's expensive, and it's reputationally risky. The next generation of competitive advantage will come from clean compute. - Design discipline Too many organisations fall into the trap of experimentation for its own sake running endless AI model iterations that consume resources without yielding proportional value. It's time to apply restraint. Use AI where it matters. Train models with purpose. Avoid redundant data cycles. This is about thoughtful innovation, not performative digitalism. - Governance Sustainability in AI cannot be a bolt-on consideration. It must be written into the code. That means deploying governance-as-code frameworks that automate sustainability guardrails, monitor energy thresholds in real-time, and flag violations before they spiral. It means giving your IT and sustainability teams a common language and the tools to enforce it. Sustainable digital transformation South African companies have an opportunity indeed, a responsibility to lead in the design of responsible AI. Our energy grid is fragile. Our climate is under strain. Our water resources are finite. But we also have some of the world's most creative technologists, a growing green finance movement, and an emerging generation of sustainability-savvy consumers. We can be the continent that shows how to scale AI responsibly, equitably, and profitably. The AI decisions we make in the next 24 months will determine whether we lock in a high-carbon future or build the foundation for sustainable digital transformation. That's the fork in the road. South African businesses must partner with experts who understand both sides of the equation, innovation and impact. Because only those who balance the promise of AI with the principles of sustainability will be truly future-ready. All rights reserved. © 2022. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
Forbes
16-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
As Data Breaches Soar, C-Suite Looks to Customer Data Management
Customer data management (CDM) best practices have never been more crucial to today's brands as they face escalating data breaches, which come with severe brand trust, balance-sheet, and customer retention issues. Throw rising competition, increased customer expectations, and a growing need for improved decision-making into the mix, and the need for strong CDM practices makes its own case. Companies need to move, store, and analyze party data so that they can effectively target customers and offer deep personalization. Most importantly, data security is especially critical to brands and businesses today – a data breach can cost companies millions within moments and break customer trust for a lifetime. The complication of data breaches create a heightened demand for corporate accountability related to data security Customers are expected to hand over their data today in most interactions with brands and businesses, but consumer frustrations are mounting as more and more data breaches and hacks occur. The calls for accountability are coming from both the consumers, as well as legislators, with good reason. For many businesses, manual data-gathering efforts using Excel spreadsheets work—up to a point. As the company grows, however, so does the data and the need to make sense of it. This can quickly become unwieldy and unhelpful: Organizations can easily get lost and overwhelmed in large data sets and lose out on potentially valuable insights that help them stand out to their customers and improve the customer journey. That's when it's time for a big change—enter customer data management strategies and solutions. Winding path-to-purchase requires deep customer understanding Unlike past decades, when channels were separate and siloed, today's path-to-purchase is a long and winding road. Multiple touchpoints, both online and off, need to stay connected— including email, CRM, e-commerce, social media, and retail POS. That means it's essential for organizations to deeply understand the customer at every stage. Customer loyalty will soon depend on a company's willingness to protect customer information with the same fervor they pursue revenue. Making sense of the data allows customers to be valued more A range of cloud-based solutions are now commonly used for customer data management that serves as the centralized, beating heart of the effort to improve customer acquisition, satisfaction, and retention; improve customer visibility and targeted communication, and boost data quality. Ultimately, businesses need customer data management to work towards achieving a single customer view that allows them to provide the seamless customer experience that consumers have come to expect, as well as calculate important metrics such as the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). However, it's not just about the technology: It's about the strategies, policies, and actions that make customer data management an effective effort that helps drive growth. Customer data management best practices: 7 important points brands should consider Following are seven best practices for customer data management: Data needs to be managed with internal standards and policies, to ensure that the organization handles data assets properly throughout the data lifecycle. Make sure the entire company is aligned, across the board, in terms of what data is collected, data points, and how it will be tracked and used. Data protection regulations, such as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) are on the rise. The right customer data management platform should make compliance with customer data regulations easy and straightforward. It's important to determine what specific types of data are most effective to serve your customers and achieve your marketing goals. There are a variety of data categories and industry-specific data to consider, from your customer's identity data, loyalty program information, and online transactional data to demographic information, social media data, and qualitative data about attitudes and opinions. Not only are data leaks and breaches becoming more costly every year—the average cost of a data breach in 2024 was $4.9 million—but these events can also severely impact a company's reputation, as well as its bottom line. If you aren't steering the security ship and communicating your commitment, you run the risk of falling into consumer doubt. After all, customers want to know their information is safe. It's essential to choose a customer data management platform that has the right security standards and practices in place. According to an IBM report, 83% of companies suffer from data inaccuracy. Not only is outdated, inaccurate data not useful, but customer satisfaction and decision-making may suffer and lead to rising costs. The key to good customer data management is making sure customer data is regularly cleaned: That is, validating and updating information including email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses, as well as removing duplicates and deleting unnecessary contacts. Forbes noted that companies now house an average of 15 silos of customer data. It doesn't have to be that way: Don't allow useful data such as call-center information, sales leads, emails, or finance communication to become useless, trapped in department and technology silos. Data needs to be securely shared and accessible, in ways that promote collaboration, problem-solving, and improved decision-making. A complete, omnichannel customer journey includes customer profiles filled out with profile, activity, event, demographic and behavioral data, as well as data related to intent and perception. Getting to that goal requires robust end-to-end customer data management solutions that are highly scalable and can store billions of profile and consent records. It's not enough to have customer data or even a holistic profile. Identity data must be collected and managed appropriately throughout the entire customer lifecycle. That means providing a frictionless customer experience with flexible registration, secure interaction touchpoints, and simplified authentication based on real-time, data-driven insights. The future of customer data is bright—and unified Today's buyers are in control. With a quick click or swipe, they can abandon a brand and make a quick move to the competition, or they can remain long-term loyalists. That means customers —their wants, their needs, their preferences, their expectations—need to be at the heart of every business. Companies have to understand how to gather and analyze the right data in order to collect insights that help them deliver meaningful, seamless experiences to their buyers. This is the promise and power of customer data management best practices: With the right platform that integrates with a company's existing sales and marketing technologies, customer data management helps brands deeply understand their customers through a holistic, unified, centralized, real-time view of data. But organizations also need to follow best practices and prioritize successful strategies in order to make customer data management successful. Effective data management is a promise to customers and an investment in your future. The first step is deciding to take control. You can do that today. This post was first published on The Future of Commerce and is republished here with permission.
Forbes
29-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Are Country-To-Country Deals The Future Of Climate Finance?
This aerial view shows a degraded area of the Amazon rainforest, near the Koatinemo indigenous land, ... More in Para state, Brazil, on June 12, 2025. (Photo by Carlos FABAL / AFP) (Photo by CARLOS FABAL/AFP via Getty Images) The path to COP30 in Brazil has begun with preparatory talks in Bonn, Germany, where climate finance remains the central issue. Negotiators are working to find financing mechanisms that will help developing nations adapt to climate change and transition to cleaner energy sources. To draw new monies, climate discussions must evolve—from offsetting emissions elsewhere to reducing carbon pollution at its source. The U.S.'s absence from these mid-year talks might hint at how tough the road ahead will be. At COP29 in Baku, wealthy nations pledged to provide vulnerable countries with $300 billion annually to help them recover from climate-related damage. But they haven't even met their $100 billion yearly goal at COP21. And the Trump Administration, which withdrew from the talks altogether, has already made it clear that it has no intention of honoring those commitments. In a conversation, Rachel Rose Jackson of Corporate Accountability didn't mince words: 'The Global North has absolutely no intention of delivering this debt. There is little evidence that carbon markets have led to proven and lasting emissions reductions. They are a dangerous distraction from real solutions. Corporations must be legally required to reduce emissions at source—they can't self-regulate their way to climate responsibility.' The need for money is staggering. The UNFCCC concludes that developing countries must raise $6 trillion by 2030 to fulfill their promises under the Paris Agreement. Yet many wealthy nations continue to lean on a patchwork of carbon markets—tools that allow them to finance rainforest preservation while continuing to emit greenhouse gases at home. Former U.S. climate envoy John Kerry put it bluntly: 138 countries, responsible for less than 1% of annual CO2 emissions, are at the mercy of just 20 nations that account for 80% of the total. The voluntary carbon market (VCM) has long been a go-to option for the developed world—a cheaper, politically safer path than direct contributions to emerging economies. While the industry is working hard to revamp its procedures, the model faces mounting scrutiny. A review by Corporate Accountability found that 39 of 50 VCM projects lacked environmental integrity; the remainder were problematic or unverifiable. In short, buying offsets is easier and cheaper than making emissions cuts. I've served as the Coalition for Rainforest Nations editor, concentrating on sovereign carbon credits issued by countries, not private interests. Erosion Of Faith TOPSHOT - An Indian man takes a shower as water leaks from a pipeline in New Delhi on June 6, 2017. ... More - Temperatures are hovering around 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Indian capital, with the cooler monsoon season still weeks away. (Photo by MONEY SHARMA / AFP) (Photo by MONEY SHARMA/AFP via Getty Images) As faith has eroded, so has value. Nature-based offset prices have plummeted from $10–15 per ton just a few years ago to $3–$6 in 2024–2025. Major buyers like Nestlé, Gucci, and Shell have exited the market, citing concerns over reputational risk and questionable methodologies. The Global South feels hopeless. Will these nations ever be compensated for protecting tropical forests that absorb carbon emissions— produced mainly by the Global North? Reform efforts are underway. The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market has introduced a two-phase vetting system focused on governance and scientific rigor. The goal is to rebuild trust and distinguish high-integrity credits that could attract renewed investment. 'No one can guarantee it will be perfect,' Nat Keohane, a senior adviser to the council, told me. 'But we can help the market and build confidence.' If successful, the council believes the VCM could scale to $20 billion–$50 billion annually by 2030; carbon credit prices could be $25 to $30 a ton. Used wisely, these funds could help preserve rainforests, support green transitions, and provide new revenue streams to developing nations committed to protecting carbon sinks. Carbon credits are not a silver bullet—but they can provide near-term capital as countries and companies decarbonize. Their role is inherently transitional, especially in hard-to-abate sectors like heavy industry or cloud computing. I reported on Microsoft, which holds a majority stake in OpenAI and relies on extensive server farms. To offset those emissions, it is investing in reforestation projects in Panama. However, this gaping void presents a new opportunity for both the developed and developing worlds to devise new techniques for attracting carbon finance. A more promising approach is for the wealthier nations to engage in bilateral pacts. These country-to-country deals are carried out under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement. This provision allows nations to fund climate projects abroad and count the resulting emissions reductions toward their climate goals, provided that strict rules are followed to prevent double-counting of the same carbon credit. The Clock Is Ticking The Scarlet Macaw, Ara macao, is a large, colorful parrot found from Mexico to Brazil. This flock ... More was photographed in Costa Rica. (Photo by: Jon G. Fuller/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Switzerland has signed carbon credit cooperation agreements with Ghana, Peru, Thailand, Morocco, and Vietnam. Sweden is working on the entire African continent through its Energy Agency and in partnership with the UN Development Program. Specifically, it is funding a $28.2 million initiative to help Kenya meet its climate goals. 'Kenya pursues progressive environmental policies and has set ambitious climate goals, but needs financial support to accelerate its climate transition,' says Sweden's Ambassador to Kenya, Caroline Vicini, in a release. Other countries are exploring alternative paths. Ecuador, Belize, and Gabon are restructuring national debt in exchange for conservation. Norway and Germany, meanwhile, are bypassing carbon markets altogether and making direct payments for forest protection. Norway alone has pledged $1 billion to Brazil's Amazon Fund and to Indonesia, with payments tied to verifiable emissions reductions. Still, the question remains: can these new financing mechanisms scale fast enough? For poorer nations, this is not a matter of convenience but survival. Carbon markets, bilateral agreements, and direct aid offer potential pathways; however, the urgency demands that they be ratcheted up now. Panama's Minister of the Environment, Juan Carlos Navarro, told me that climate change presents the ultimate accountability dilemma: it's everyone's responsibility, which means no one is truly accountable — not even the United States, the world's second-largest CO2 polluter. The stakes could not be higher. Climate change is already reshaping our world from supercharged hurricanes to sweeping wildfires and historic floods. For the poorest nations, climate finance is not a luxury—it is a lifeline. These countries did not create the crisis. But they are counting on the rest of us to help solve it, requiring innovative tools to lure carbon finance.
Scoop
28-06-2025
- Business
- Scoop
New Analysis Reveals How Unsuccessful The 'VCM 2.0' Reform Is To-Date
Boston, Massachusetts, 24 June 2025 – Today new research released by Corporate Accountability provides a deep dive into the largest carbon offset projects in the voluntary carbon market (VCM) in 2024, and explores how successful the 'VCM 2.0' reform is to-date at improving the integrity of the voluntary carbon market, as well as whether it is any more likely to reduce global emissions. A carbon offset is an 'allowance' that governments, institutions, and corporations—from fossil fuel majors and airlines to fast-food and tech giants—purchase from environmental projects to supposedly count towards their respective greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Millions of these offset credits, which are linked up through a global carbon market called the VCM, are purchased by these actors annually and counted towards their emissions reductions, often in lieu of other emissions-reducing activities. Despite decades of failing to lead to global emissions reductions, the VCM remains one of the most widely supported forms of climate action, promoted by world governments, industry actors, corporations, and policymakers alike. The analysis underscores the inherently problematic nature of increasing corporate and governmental investment in a scheme that remains fundamentally flawed and which is likely to continue to fail to reduce carbon emissions, all while distracting from meaningful climate action and even likely causing harm. The researchers conducted analysis of data on AlliedOffsets database as well as from industry ratings agencies like BeZero, and revealed that many of the world's largest offset projects in 2024 are unlikely to deliver global emissions reductions. Key findings include: More than 47.7 million problematic offsets credits were retired through 43 of the world's largest offset projects in 2024, meaning they are not likely to lead to the promised emissions reductions. These 43 projects alone account for nearly one-quarter of the VCM. Eighty percent of the offsets assessed in this analysis were problematic. Nearly all (or 93%) of the projects retiring problematic credits are located in the Global South, countries that have historically contributed the least to climate change. This includes five projects that are in Brazil, the upcoming host of the U.N climate talks later this year. Verra hosts the largest number of problematic projects and retired 43.6 million problematic offsets through the assessed projects, suggesting that its updated methodologies and measures taken to assure investors may not rectify the flaws. Yet the approval and promotion of problematic offsets unlikely to lead to emissions reductions spreads much further than Verra. Three other registries were involved in retiring problematic offsets from these projects, and at least 17 verifiers were involved in approving these problematic offsets for VCM trading, to then be purchased by VCM buyers all around the world. Forestry and land use projects had the largest number of problematic projects (23), followed by renewable energy projects (15), household devise projects (4), and chemical processes/industrial manufacturing projects (1). All 37 projects assessed in greater detail had a legitimate risk of having at least one fundamental failing that rendered the projects unlikely to deliver—totaling nearly 40 million credits. These projects either had a legitimate or high risk of non-additionality (23), non-permanence (14), leakage (17), or over-credited (19). The research suggests that despite ongoing reforms, the VCM 2.0 continues to largely fail, enhancing the likelihood of global climate action failure. Any advances through this reform appear to be limited in scope and potential, posing the question of why VCM supporters and investors continue to take on the liability of such great risk, and who is liable for these failures. 'This research serves as an eleventh-hour warning for supporters and investors of carbon offsets and the carbon market,' said Meena Raman, Head of Programs at Third World Network. 'The implications are clear—it's time to shift away from carbon markets, which have failed to deliver emissions reductions for decades, and reinvest into proven solutions that permanently reduce emissions at source and justly address the root causes of climate change. These problematic offsets have no role in the climate action plans of countries or corporations. These pollution allowances have commodified the climate crisis and erased real action. As a result of these sham approaches, millions of lives are now being traded so polluters can profit.' The voluntary carbon market (VCM) has come under increased scrutiny thanks to multiple investigations by experts around the world revealing how these carbon trading schemes appear to give corporations cover to continue polluting while not actually reducing emissions, and even likely spurring significant harm. In 2023, a joint Guardian and Corporate Accountability investigation poked significant holes in carbon trading schemes seen to give permission to countries and corporations to continue burning fossil fuels. According to Rachel Rose Jackson, Director of Climate Research & Policy at Corporate Accountability, 'The latest evidence calls on policymakers as well as investors and supporters of carbon offsets to reckon with why such liability is being taken to continue to worship the voluntary carbon market, and for what real purpose—if it is not likely to lead to emissions reductions? Who is responsible for the repeated failures of the 'checks and balances' that are supposedly plugging the holes of this sinking ship? And why are we trying to solve a global crisis with a scheme that is yet again condemning the planet, not catalyzing the meaningful action urgently needed?' The failures of the VCM are likely much more vast than this research reveals, given that this research only provides one snapshot of problematic projects and fundamental failures that are likely to be more prevalent across the VCM as a whole. This suggests that critical reflections need to happen on the legitimacy of the VCM more broadly. 'The problem isn't just one bad actor; it's baked into the system even among those considered most reputable. And it is not limited to merely one actor or verifier in the carbon market ecosystem,' said Erika Lennon, Senior Attorney, Climate and Energy Program at Center for International Environmental Law. 'With mounting evidence, it's past time for major emitters to stop outsourcing their responsibility to the Global South and commit to a full fossil fuel phaseout – full stop, no loopholes. Clinging to carbon markets not only delays climate progress but also increases legal risks for companies betting on the credibility of these schemes instead of reducing their own emissions. Relying on and promoting offsets to address the climate crisis puts the planet's and all its inhabitants' future at risk and is as smart as relying on the arsonist to fight the fire.'
Scoop
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Corporate Accountability And Global Climate Justice Groups Issue Statement On Breakdown Of UN Climate Talks In Bonn
The following statement was delivered today by Rachel Rose Jackson, Corporate Accountability's Director of Climate Research and Policy, on June 19th, 2025 in Bonn, Germany at a UNFCCC press conference. For the full press conference alongside partners, see webcast here: As the saying goes, 'It takes two to tango,' and this is certainly true when it comes to international collaboration, whether on climate action or anything else. But let's be absolutely clear. The United States has always been a very dreadful dance partner. From day one. Nothing has changed in this regard here at Bonn,, apart from their physical absence from the dance floor, which sends a very clear message to the world that, truly, the United States cares for no one and nothing but itself. Now, at least the only thing that's different, is that it's clear for all the world to see what those of us who have spent many years in these halls have always witnessed—that the US never was and never has been serious about international collaboration of any kind. That the US throws its neocolonial and capitalist weight around to bully, block, and stall progress on any issue that would require it to act meaningfully. And that the US never has and never will care about saving lives, protecting the planet, or avoiding an entire societal collapse that it has played a direct hand in orchestrating for decades, if not centuries. But, at the same time, if you're not going to bother to show up to the dance floor to tango, then simply put, maybe don't bother to show up on the dance floor at all. Yet, rather than than simply abandoning their dance partners,, they have turned off the lights, broken the music player, put oil across the floor, tied everybody's shoe laces together and smashed the windows on the way out of the disco — all to ensure that with or without them here, the dance cannot proceed, and this process is rigged to fail. The US is acting in a way that is way more than bad faith. This is backhanded. It's manipulative. It's reckless. And it's also senseless and illogical, because the US. cannot seem to understand that an inadequate global response to climate change will not only condemn millions around the world to death and destruction, it will also condemn millions of its own. Especially those people of color, Indigenous communities, and low-income workers and communities. A dance that could have led to beautiful climate action decades ago has now become, to put it very simply, a dance of death. Because, the US doesn't care, and neither does the European Union or the Umbrella Group of countries, or the supposed Environmental integrity Group. The Global North has always been partnering with the United States in the toxic tango of poisoning international collaboration. Here in Bonn, we see only moves that will bring us closer to societal collapse and planetary destruction. And in the agenda fight over the opening days, the EU and others not only refused to come to the dance floor, they refused even to discuss the dance song or the choreography when all the Global South wanted to do and all they were asking for was the chance to discuss - * discuss *, not even deliver - meaningful climate finance and the climate debt owed to the Global South. The Global North has absolutely no intention of delivering this debt. They have already orchestrated their get out of jail free cards. Here, they will not even allow the pretense of a discussion about finance, and at COP last year in Bakù, they helped ram through the rules on carbon markets that provide the key to their great escape and their final destructive dance. Here and at home, they are also embedding these carbon markets into their pretend NDCs, to be seen to be taking action without really doing anything to do so. We are told time and time again that there is no money, that carbon markets are the only way for Global South communities and countries to receive any support to address climate change. All of this while they spend billions and trillions on military support to Israel, on their industrial military complexes, and now threatening the same in relation to the very disastrous developments unraveling in Iran. These countries have all the money in the world. They have amassed infinite wealth off the backs of frontline and Global South communities who they are now indebted to. Carbon markets are their way to shift all responsibility for the climate crisis to the very same communities that are already shouldering the greatest impacts, and to ensure that these Global North countries and Big Polluters can continue to pollute with impunity. But carbon markets don't work. Though they have been existing in some form for as long as the UNFCCC has, they have never, not once, correlated with a global decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. They harm communities, they destroy ecosystems, and they allow the fossil fuel industry, Big Ag, and other polluters to continue to pollute unchecked. They have been shown, time and time again, not to work, and are proven to fail. And they are not climate finance or climate action. So in the Global North's deceptive dance of climate breakdown, the moves we are seeing on the dance floor here in Bonnare the finale. And we must be attuned to their deadly agenda, and we must resist. We must call them out and we must hold them accountable. Not only to paying their long overdue climate debt. But to finally doing their fair share of climate action. The truth is it doesn't only 'take two to tango' when it comes to addressing the climate crisis. It actually takes everyone, together in this moment, on the dance floor dancing to the same music to have a dance of climate action. Without this,it is to become a dance of climate death and destruction..' Quotes from other members of Demand Climate Justice (DCJ): Meena Raman, Third World Network: '… For many of us who come to these UN processes, we really always feel whether the UN will live up to its multilateral agreements. So what we see here is that we as the peoples of the world, and particularly from the Global South, we have to hold governments to account, particularly in the Global North. Now the United States is not in this process, and perhaps to some extent that seems to be a good thing in the sense that the halls here are a little bit more less [sic] toxic. However, the Global North, those who remain here, continue to do and take the positions that the United States had been taking. So what you see here happening now is actually akin to a dance where you have only if you're doing the tango, you do need… two sides to tango. But what you see happening here is that the other side doesn't want to tango. It does not even want to have a discussion. So you can't have a dance like this… you need to tango together …so this is really about the multilateral regime and how we as peoples of the world have to hold governments to account and say honor, respect international law, respect human rights, respect what you have agreed to. And so this is what is really so important in terms of the overall… …all parties are responsible. We hold our developing country governments to account. But like I said, you need two to tango, and so we have to get on and not rely on and wreck the multilateral system through unilateral measures, whether they are trade, whether they are economic, whether they are by bombs and whether they are by total impunity destroying the very fragile international regime.' Pang Delgra, Asian People's Movement on Debt and Debt Development: 'You know as a young person from the Global South I am consistently baffled by the hypocrisy that we see in adaptation talks here at the UNFCCC. Despite ostensibly keeping adaptation in the agenda with five different negotiation streams, there has been no real progress in unlocking adaptation action on the ground, and this has been the case for years. The Adaptation Fund in its 16 year history has only received a meager $1 Trillion in support, while the adaptation finance needs of the Global South continue to balloon every year as we come closer and closer to hard adaptation limits. And need I remind everybody in the room that the consequences of this clear inaction are very clear and devastating. In my country, the Philippines, the lack of support for adaptation has led to loss and damages with 20 plus typhoons annually, leaving many of us homeless, bankrupt and unable to rebuild our lives. All over the Global South, agriculture is collapsing under the weight of climate extremes, threatening food sovereignty and pushing entire communities to hunger and displacement. Women around the world who are first to bear the brunt of the climate crisis are left to carry this burden on their own with little to no support even from their own governments. And the future that we're handing down to the future generations is marked with irreversible loss of homes, livelihoods and lands. And the heart of the issue here, as Meena has already said, is, you know, justice and reparations. This is why developed countries don't want to talk. They don't want to go to the table. And they will continue to stall these adaptation negotiations because they still refuse until now to recognise their role, the historical and continuing responsibility in causing the climate catastrophe and the resulting disproportionate vulnerability of the Global South that's being caused by their actions. We're locked into maladaptive pathways making basically adaptation action on the ground impossible because we have no finance…without urgent public grants based on adaptation finance…we are being condemned to permanent harm and we are not just being denied support, we are being sacrificed here. This is not a technical issue. This is not just all blah blah blah in those rooms. This is a political choice, as Meena said, a deliberate act of abandonment by the EU, the EIG, the umbrella group and their invisible allies in the U.S. We need adaptation justice now, and they don't want to give that to us. But we need it not just to adapt to our new catastrophic realities in the Global South but to ensure that we actually survive through this. And this is an issue that the Global South will continue to bring to the table and we as DCJ will continue to bring it to these rooms.'
