DUBAI – COP28 President Dr Sultan Al Jaber gaveled the first major milestone of COP28 delivering a historic agreement to operationalize 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.’
“The hard work of many people over many years has been delivered in Dubai,” Dr Al Jaber said. “The speed at which the world came together, to get this fund operationalized 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 today following the agreement reached by parties during five transitional committee meetings. The 5th transitional meeting hosted earlier this month in Abu Dhabi was added by the COP28 Presidency following the impasse reached at the 4th 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 socialized those recommendations with national governments ahead of COP28, laying the groundwork for today’s 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 today its commitment of $100 million 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 $100million, the UK, which committed £40million for the Fund and £20million for other arrangements, Japan, which contributed $10million and the US, which committed $17.5million.
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