COP28 began in Dubai with an historic agreement to support developing countries with a loss and damage fund.
COP28 President Dr. Sultan Al Jaber today revealed the first major milestone of the event by delivering the historic agreement to operationalise the fund, which will assist developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, known in the negotiations as “loss and damage”.
Al Jaber said: “The hard work of many people over many years, has been delivered in Dubai.
COP28 Loss and Damage fund
“The speed at which the world came together, to get this fund operationalised within one year since Parties agreed to it in Sharm El Sheikh is unprecedented.”
The Fund was first agreed upon during COP27, held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, and becomes operational following the agreement reached by parties during five transitional committee meetings.
The fifth transitional meeting hosted earlier this month in Abu Dhabi was added by the COP28 Presidency following the impasse reached at the fourth meeting, where parties reached a resolution.
That meeting generated recommendations on implementing the fund, including the provision of essential grant-based support to countries especially impacted by climate and loss.
In a comprehensive listening tour, COP28 leadership socialised those recommendations with national governments ahead of COP28, laying the groundwork for the historic decision.
Loss and Damage is essential even if the world meets climate mitigation goals because a “locked-in” level of warming already impacts particularly vulnerable communities being hit by extreme weather events, such as storms and floods, reduced agricultural productivity, and rising sea levels.
This decisive action on Loss and Damage will enable the Parties to focus on the strongest possible response to the Global Stocktake, the world’s report card on progress toward Paris Agreement goals.
The UAE announced its commitment of $100m to the fund, which aims to provide financial assistance to countries at extreme risk from climate change, to support climate change mitigation and recovery.
Other countries making notable commitments included Germany, which committed $100m, the UK, which committed £40m ($51m) for the fund and £20m ($25m) for other arrangements, Japan, which contributed $10m and the US, which committed $17.5m.
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