BENGALURU, India (AP) — Tense negotiations concluded in Abu Dhabi on a climate-related loss and damages fund with an agreement that the World Bank will temporarily host the fund for the next four years. This fund aims to provide support to developing countries severely affected by the consequences of global warming.
Despite disappointment from the United States and other developing countries regarding the draft agreement, it will be presented for signing at the upcoming COP28 climate conference in Dubai.
The U.S. State Department expressed satisfaction with the reached agreement, although it lamented the lack of voluntary contributions to the fund.
The agreement outlines the fund’s fundamental objectives, including its planned launch in 2024 and the administrative structure. It stipulates that developing nations, in addition to the World Bank, will have representation on the board.
Avinash Persaud, a special envoy to Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley on climate finance, described the agreement as “a challenging but critical outcome.” He emphasized the importance of measuring success by the equality of discomfort experienced during negotiations. Persaud represented Latin America and the Caribbean during the meetings.
Mohamed Nasr, the lead negotiator from Egypt, the previous host of the climate conference, expressed concerns about the agreement’s shortcomings regarding funding scale and sources, as well as the acknowledgment of costs incurred by developing nations.
The establishment of a fund to aid countries severely impacted by climate change has been a focal point of U.N. climate talks for the past three decades. It finally materialized at last year’s climate conference in Egypt. Subsequently, a smaller group of negotiators from wealthy and developing nations have engaged in multiple meetings to finalize the fund’s details. The last meeting in Aswan, Egypt, in November ended without a resolution.
While acknowledging that an agreement on the fund is preferable to a stalemate, climate policy analysts argue that various gaps must be addressed for the fund to effectively assist impoverished and vulnerable communities that face increasingly frequent climate-related disasters.
Brandon Wu from ActionAid USA, who has closely followed the negotiations, described the meetings as “the furthest thing imaginable from a success.” Wu criticized the fund for imposing minimal responsibilities on developed countries while failing to meet the priorities of the very developing nations that are meant to benefit from it.
Sultan al-Jaber, a federal minister with the United Arab Emirates and CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, who will oversee COP28 next month, welcomed the outcome of the meetings. He highlighted the dependence of billions of people on the adoption of the recommended approach at COP28.
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This article has corrected the timing for the COP28 climate conference. It starts later this month, not in December.
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AP Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report
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