confidentially speaking
The Africa Confidential Blog
Climate summit faces trillion dollar question on Loss and Damage Fund
Blue Lines
The status and funding of the Loss and Damage Fund will be the main institutional issue facing African and other world leaders as the UN COP28 climate summit in Dubai opens on 30 November. It is set to become the third-leading UN channel for climate finance.
Agreement to launch the Fund, which is designed to compensate countries for the costs of extreme weather and climate change, was the key breakthrough at last year's summit in Sharm el Sheikh.
After months of difficult and secret negotiations, members of the Transitional Committee have agreed on most of the Fund's terms of reference, but some key questions remain outstanding. The Fund will be hosted by the World Bank for its first four years. It will also be available to all nations that are 'particularly vulnerable' to climate change, which represents a success for African states who had to fend off a Swiss proposal that the fund only cater, at least initially, to coastal and island states.
Less clear is how it will be paid for, by whom and over what timeframe. Officials have indicated that the United Arab Emirates, which is hosting the summit in Dubai, will pledge $10 billion to the Loss and Damage Fund. That would put pressure on the United States, the EU and others to make similar financial commitments. But it would not solve the question of how the Fund, expected to be a long-term financing tool, could become viable.
