Leading nations have committed to loss and damage financing – a stumbling block at previous climate change talks – at the opening of COP28 in Dubai.
Host country UAE is contributing $100m to the fund, with Germany matching the figure, in what is seen as ‘an important milestone in delivering for vulnerable communities and building resilience for people suffering the devastating impacts of climate change’. It was announced $400m overall has been pledged.
Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, said, “We decide to fund this transition properly including the response to loss and damage. And we decide to commit to a new energy system. If we do not signal the terminal decline of the fossil fuel era as we know it, we welcome our own terminal decline. And we choose to pay with people’s lives.”
Loss and damage refers to the negative consequences that arise from the unavoidable risks of climate change, such as rising sea levels, prolonged heatwaves, desertification, the acidification of the sea and extreme events, be they bushfires, species extinction or crop failures.
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