Skip to main content

Kerala ecologist seeks UN compensation for Wayanad floods and landslide damage

By A Representative 
Prominent ecologist and UN environmental negotiator Dr. S Faizi has formally urged the UNFCCC Loss and Damage Fund to allocate compensation for the catastrophic floods and landslides that devastated Wayanad, Kerala, in July 2024. In a letter addressed to Dr. Ibrahim Cheikh Diong, Executive Director of the Fund, Faizi highlighted the climate crisis as the primary cause of the disaster, which claimed 359 lives, left 95 permanently disabled, and caused severe injuries to 378 others.  
The Kerala government estimates recovery and reconstruction costs at Rs 22,190 million (approx. $258 million), excluding compensation for loss of life, livelihoods, and agricultural damage. Faizi argues the total losses exceed Rs 50,000 million ($581 million), a burden unsustainable for the state without international support. Citing a World Weather Attribution study linking the disaster to climate change, he emphasized Wayanad’s "carbon-negative" status, noting its minimal role in causing the crisis.  
Faizi acknowledged the need for formal submissions from the Kerala and Indian governments but urged the Fund to treat his appeal as a provisional placeholder, given bureaucratic delays. He also referenced Kerala’s 2018 floods as further evidence of climate-induced vulnerabilities in the ecologically sensitive state.  
The letter calls on industrialized nations to fulfill reparations through the Fund, stressing the moral obligation to support regions disproportionately affected by climate change despite negligible historical emissions. Faizi pledged to provide additional documentation to strengthen the case.  
The UNFCCC has yet to respond publicly. Observers note the request could set a precedent for climate justice claims from vulnerable communities worldwide.  

Comments

Post a Comment

TRENDING

Swaminarayan, untouchability and the 'we are not Hindu' argument

By Rajiv Shah   Following my blog on why the Eiffel Tower authorities should take all the blame for giving in to the Swaminarayan sadhus ’ bizarre demand to “invisibilise” women, including its female staff, during their visit to the internationally renowned Paris tourist centre on September 5, an interesting comment by one of the top academics drew my attention to something I vaguely knew about one of India’s most powerful and richest religious sects.
Post a Comment
»

From margins to microphones: The rise of Dalit hip-hop in India

By Tersina Maria Toppo*  A protest does not always arrive as a slogan shouted from a street corner. Sometimes, it arrives on a beat. A microphone replaces the megaphone, a music video becomes a public square, and the smartphone becomes the space where a history once pushed to the margins is narrated, debated, and shared.
Post a Comment
»

Xi Jinping’s visit to USA: Recognition that China can't be contained?

By Vijay Prashad   President Xi Jinping’s forthcoming visit to the United States must be understood as more than an encounter between two heads of state, but it must be seen as an encounter between two possible futures. In one future, the United States imposes a spiral of confrontation against China. Trade disputes harden into economic warfare, then economic warfare intensifies into technological blockades, technological blockades produce military encirclement, and finally military encirclement creates incidents, and incidents the danger of becoming an unimaginable war.
Post a Comment
»