On the opening day of COP28 in Dubai on Thursday, almost all countries completed the establishment of a fund to assist in compensating countries that are finding it difficult to deal with loss and damage brought on by climate change. This gained the attention of climate experts.
The United Arab Emirates planned to contribute $100 million to the fund, and Sultan al-Jaber, the president of the COP28 climate conference, praised it as “the first decision to be adopted on Day One of any COP.”
Other countries stepped up with big-ticket commitments, including Germany, also at $100 million.
Historically, industrialised countries have released the greatest amount of carbon emissions that trap heat in the atmosphere.
Developing countries have long sought to address the issue of inadequate funding for responding to climate disasters caused by climate change, which hit them especially hard and for which they have little responsibility.
Promisings made moments after the fund was approved, according to Joe Thwaites, senior advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council, were “unprecedented.”
Avinash Persaud, special climate envoy for Barbados, who was part of the talks to finalise the fund, praised the agreement but added that a significant amount of money would need to be contributed.
Still, experts said the show of unity demonstrated how the world could come together in short order to address devastation left behind from natural catastrophes like tropical storm Daniel that hammered Libya with massive flooding in September, and Cyclone Freddy that battered several African nations early in the year.
Initial steps toward creating the fund was a major accomplishment at last year’s U.N. climate conference in Egypt, but it was never finalised.
Even after Thursday’s agreement, many details of the “loss and damage fund” were left unresolved, such as how large it would be, who would administer it over the long term, and more.
A recent report by the United Nations estimates that up to $387 billion will be needed annually if developing countries are to adapt to climate-driven changes.
The fund will be hosted by the World Bank for the next four years and the plan is to launch it by 2024.
