COP28: delegates agree to launch a fund to help developing countries

Delegates to the UN climate conference on the first day of COP28 agreed to launch a fund to help developing countries, the UN said on November 30, UNN reports.

Delegates meeting in Dubai agreed Thursday 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,

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"News of the loss and damage fund kicks off the UN climate conference. All governments and negotiators must build on this momentum to achieve promising results here in Dubai," said Simon Steele, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Last year, during COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt - after several years of intensive negotiations under the auspices of the UN - developed countries supported the idea of creating a fund.

The chairman of the climate conference COP28, Sultan al-Jaber, announced after the opening of the conference that his country, the United Arab Emirates, would contribute $100 million to the fund. Germany has also reportedly pledged $100 million. The United States and Japan have also announced contributions to the fund.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres arrived in Dubai on Thursday evening. His spokesman said that the UN chief welcomed the decision taken at the opening of the conference to launch the Loss and Damage Fund, an important tool to ensure climate justice for the world's most vulnerable people. Guterres called on world leaders to make generous contributions to the fund.

Speaking at the opening of the conference on Thursday, Simon Still warned that the world is only taking "small steps" in the face of a terrible climate crisis of global proportions that requires decisive action.

"We are taking small steps and acting too slowly," he told delegates gathered for the conference.

Still's warning came just hours after the UN weather agency, known as the WMO, released a preliminary report saying that a lack of decisive action to combat global warming has led to new temperature records and increased extreme weather events.

Still explained what was at stake. "This was the hottest year on record for humanity. A lot of terrible records were broken," he said, adding that people are dying and losing their livelihoods because of the climate crisis.

"Science tells us that we have about six years before the planet's ability to cope with the effects of harmful emissions is exhausted. Before we reach the 1.5-degree warming limit," Steele warned. This threshold is set by the Paris Climate Agreement.

As of today, if the international community's climate course does not change, the planet is headed for a 3-degree Celsius temperature increase by the end of this century.

Still called on countries to implement national climate change action plans, in which each commitment should meet the goal of keeping warming within 1.5 degrees.

"If we don't signal the final departure of the fossil fuel era as we know it, it will mean our own final departure," Steele said.

He emphasized that simply attending the conference is not enough, it is necessary to fulfill the promises made within its framework. 

Addendum

Today, the conference features a climate action summit where the UN Secretary-General will join world leaders in giving national reports on what countries are doing to tackle the global climate crisis.

The climate conference will last until December 12.