Josephine Ngoya: Natural disasters affected lives of over 3M people in South Sudan

South Sudan has been suffering from severe floods since 2019, and natural disasters have affected the lives of more than 3 million residents of the country, the country's Minister of Environment and Forestry, Josephine Napwon Cosmos Ngoya, said at a high-level meeting during COP29, Report informs.

According to her, climate disasters have led to internal displacement and loss of livelihoods.

"Droughts, excessive heat, heat waves, irregular rains - all of this has led to crop failure. As a result, more than 60% of our population now falls into the category of food insecurity," said Napwon. The minister noted that South Sudan is one of the countries most affected by climate change, and adaptation to these consequences is a priority for the people and government.

"However, this priority cannot be achieved without adequate climate financing. Therefore, a new collective quantitative goal must be agreed upon at COP29, and the new volume should be measured in trillions of dollars, while access mechanisms to new funds should be streamlined and simplified regarding losses and damages," she emphasized.

Napwon called for accelerating the sustainable capitalization and operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund. To limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, we call on developed countries and major emitters to increase their ambitions and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the minister added.