My name is Pang from the Philippines, delivering this intervention on behalf of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, one of the Environmental NGOs.

We congratulate the room in streamlining indicators and are happy to support the work in finalizing this by COP30.

As movements representing grassroots communities in the Global South that are ravaged by climate impacts as we speak, we would like to remind Parties that your work here affects real lives. The lives of frontline communities comprised of Indigenous peoples, women, youth, smallholder food producers, workers, and other vulnerable groups who bear the brunt of the climate crisis. A crisis that was borne out of decades of exploitation, resource extraction, and plundering of the Global South by the Global North.

The adaptation finance needs of the Global South are 18x the current public finance flows, which are declining year on year. We warn that every dollar of adaptation finance withheld translates to a hundredfold loss and damage costs for the Global South and every year it is delayed translates to lives lost.

That all said, we urge you to strengthen indicators on the Means of Implementation to ensure that they track the public adaptation finance provision from developed to developing countries, ensure that the quality of this financing is grants-based and accessible, and whether it has been spent with the view of centering the most vulnerable grassroots communities. We also support Parties’ move to remove any indicators on ODA and national budgets as they are beyond the scope of the UNFCCC and help developed countries skirt their legal obligation to provide climate finance. 

Let us, as observers, remind you that people across the globe see through the delay and deception. You will be judged based on how you unlock real climate action and not simply whether you shortened a list of thousand indicators. We hope you proceed with the view of ensuring adaptation action on the ground is implemented and funded now, not later. Thank you.