https://youtu.be/Rr44XijfbpI
Dear COP29 Negotiator,
This is the story of Ijeoma Ogodo, a native of Imiringi community in Bayelsa State, who lost her daughter-swept away by relentless floods that have become the cruel norm for her people. While we sit in the air-conditioned hall at COP29, negotiating global climate policies and financing mechanisms, Ijeoma and many others are left to face a crisis they did not create. That flood, which took her child, has not stopped; it continued to wreak havoc in communities, leaving hunger, disease, and despair in its wake. In these villages, adaptation and loss-and-damage finance are words of distant promises-lifelines that never arrive.
As delegates debate in the serenity of Azerbaijan, oil-rich nations walk out of agreements, and organizations fight for their interests, let this one thing be remembered: every decision made here has life-or-death consequences for people like Ijeoma. We need to ask ourselves: where is last year's climate money?
Who is responsible to deliver it? And how will those resources finally be delivered to the most deserving populations? But, it is of little use to clamor for more financing if the funds that are there already fail to make a dent. Their voices of flood victims, landless farmers, and displaced women must not fall unheard.
Our mission here in COP29 is not to build careers or protect profits; it is to protect lives. And for every negotiator, every diplomat, every activist, the question should be: What is a human life worth to me? May this guide each and every action, every policy, every promise made here.
Sincerely,
Diolu Tobechukwu Prosper
Co-founder, LINCGREEN CLIMATE CHANGE INITATIVE
