Climate-related loss and damages negotiations recently finished in Abu Dhabi, marking a watershed moment in the battle against climate change. With reservations, the World Bank will host this multinational fund for the next four years.
While the US and numerous poor countries were disappointed with the drafting agreement, the US State Department was "pleased with an agreement being reached" but expressed concern that the final deal did not fully embrace the consensus on voluntary donations.
The agreement specifies the fund's key goals, including its introduction in 2024, governance structure, and the critical inclusion of developing countries on its board alongside the World Bank. Avinash Persaud, a special advisor on climate finance to Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, hailed the agreement as "challenging but critical," emphasising the need of reaching a compromise. If an agreement could not be reached, it would have cast a long shadow over the upcoming COP28 climate meeting in Dubai.
For three decades, the need for such a fund, aimed at supporting economically weak nations bearing the brunt of climate change, has been a primary focus of United Nations climate discussions. Only last year, during the Cairo Climate Conference, was the fund's creation formally announced. A smaller group of negotiators from both wealthy and developing countries has been working hard to finalise the fund's details.
Still, despite the agreement, climate policy researchers warn that critical holes must be filled for the fund to be genuinely successful. Brandon Wu of ActionAid USA, who has been following the talks closely, expressed worry that the fund puts low conditions on rich nations while failing to address the needs of developing countries that are supposed to benefit from it.
Sultan al-Jaber, a United Arab Emirates federal minister and CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company who will manage COP28, praised the agreement's outcome, recognising the huge stakes for billions of people exposed to climate change.
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Technology is a useful servant, but a dangerous master, it was rightly said. Electronic devices have grown into an inevitable part of our daily lives.
