COP31: GAYO pushes for climate finance to reach waste pickers and zero waste communities
The Green Africa Youth Organisation (GAYO) has called on governments and climate financiers at COP31 to channel climate finance directly to the waste pickers, communities and cities already delivering zero waste solutions, rather than to costly incineration projects. Speaking at a press conference titled “Zero Waste COP – Incinerators Out. Zero Waste In.”, organised by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) in Antalya, Türkiye, on 11 November, GAYO's Zero Waste Director, Jacob Johnson Attakpah, said the current flow of money is lopsided. “Governments and climate financiers must correct this imbalance and make climate finance accessible to the communities and cities already delivering solutions,” he said. “The litmus test of climate finance is whether it reaches the people and services capable of delivering change and results; that means financing the daily work of separation, collection, reuse and composting while recognizing the people who make it possible, waste pickers and other actors in the informal sector.”