COP28: Delegates Agree on Loss and Damage Fund

Delegates meeting in Dubai agreed on the operationalization of a fund that would help compensate vulnerable countries coping with loss and damage caused by climate change, a major breakthrough on the first day of this year’s UN climate conference.

The fund has been a long-standing demand of developing nations on the frontlines of climate change coping with the cost of the devastation caused by ever-increasing extreme weather events such as drought, floods, and rising seas.

Following several years of intense negotiations at annual UN climate meetings, developed nations extended their support for the need to set up the fund last year during COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Germany has pledged a contribution of $100 million to the fund. The United States and Japan have also announced contributions to the fund.

nations contributing least to greenhouse gas emissions are least equipped to deal with droughts, sea-level rise and other climate-related destruction. Lives, livelihoods and cultures could be massively altered by extreme weather events. As the climate crisis unfolds, these events will occur more frequently, and the consequences will become more severe.

The draft agreement to operationalize the long-awaited ‘loss and damage’ fund aims to help compensate vulnerable nations for the impact of climate change, by, citing just one possible example, ensuring that vital infrastructure can be rebuilt or replaced with more sustainable versions.