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Despite failing to garner support in Bern to host a climate summit, Geneva scored a win in March after other governments selected the city as the base for the Santiago Network’s secretariat, but not without Switzerland’s encouragement.
The decision on where the secretariat of the Santiago Network – an advisory body helping to equip climate disaster-hit states with support from various sources, including international organisations and experts – had been delayed since the Cop28 in Dubai, with countries bickering about locations.
Various groups of countries on the frontlines of climate impacts, including small island states, African nations and the least developed countries, were worried that their specific vulnerabilities may not be fully addressed from other shortlisted locations that may be dealing with their own natural disasters.
“Geneva is seen as a neutral space,” Matthew McKinnon, executive director of Aroha, an NGO promoting the interests of climate-vulnerable nations, said. “It was a way to resolve interest clashes that could have come from locating (the headquarters) geographically in a country representative of one of the country groups,” on the network’s voting advisory board.
Read the full story on Geneva Solutions
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