Loss and Damage in Madagascar: Paddling Against a Stream
In 2022, southern Madagascar faced the fifth year of a devastating drought causing severe food insecurity, which the UN described as “the only - maybe the first - climate change famine on earth.” Also in 2022, Madagascar was hit by four tropical storms and cyclones in a period of three months. Coastal areas suffered significant losses with up to 90 percent of houses being destroyed and up to 80 percent of farmlands being flooded.
Countries like Madagascar have yet to see promises fulfilled on support for climate-change mitigation and adaptation. CRS calls on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to:
- Create a new funding mechanism to compensate for the loss and damage caused by climate change.
- Ensure that new loss and damage financing does not add to the debt loads of Global South countries.
- Make debt relief part of a climate change agenda
In Madagascar, CRS is learning from people experiencing climate change to support policy makers in formulating long-term solutions. The international community must robustly embrace the need to address loss and damage now and in the future.
Published November 2022
