Countries have moved a step closer to getting a fund off the ground to help poor states\u00a0damaged by climate disasters, despite reservations from developing nations\u00a0and\u00a0the United States. <\/p>\n
The deal to create a\u00a0\u201closs\u00a0and\u00a0damage\u201d\u00a0fund was hailed as a breakthrough for developing country negotiators at United Nations climate talks in Egypt last year, overcoming years of resistance from wealthy nations. <\/p>\n
But in the past 11 months, governments have struggled to reach consensus on the details of the fund, such as who will pay\u00a0and\u00a0where the fund will be located. <\/p>\n
A special UN committee tasked with implementing the fund met for a fifth time in Abu Dhabi this week \u2014 following a\u00a0deadlock\u00a0in Egypt last month \u2014 to finalize recommendations that will be put to governments when they meet for the annual climate summit COP28 in Dubai in less than four weeks\u2019 time. The goal is to get the fund up\u00a0and\u00a0running by 2024. <\/p>\n
The committee, representing a geographically diverse group of countries, on Saturday resolved to\u00a0recommend\u00a0the World Bank serve as trustee\u00a0and\u00a0host of the fund \u2014 a tension point that has fueled divisions between developed\u00a0and\u00a0developing nations. <\/p>\n
Housing a fund at the World Bank, whose presidents are appointed by the US, would give donor countries outsized influence over the fund\u00a0and\u00a0result in high fees for recipient countries, developing countries have argued. <\/p>\n
To get all countries on board, it was agreed the World Bank would serve as interim trustee\u00a0and\u00a0host of the fund for a four-year period. <\/p>\n
Jennifer Morgan, Germany\u2019s special climate envoy, said in a post on X that Berlin \u201cstands ready to fulfill its responsibility \u2014 we\u2019re actively working towards contributing to the new fund\u00a0and\u00a0assessing options for more structural sources of financing.\u201d <\/p>\n
Others were less optimistic. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a somber day for climate justice, as rich countries turn their backs on vulnerable communities,\u201d said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at nonprofit Climate Action Network International. <\/p>\n
\u201cRich countries \u2026 have not only coerced developing nations into accepting the World Bank as the host of the\u00a0Loss\u00a0and\u00a0Damage\u00a0Fund but have also evaded their duty to lead in providing financial assistance to those communities\u00a0and\u00a0countries.\u201d <\/p>\n
The committee also recommended that developed countries be urged to continue to provide support to the fund, but failed to resolve whether wealthy nations would be under strict financial obligation to chip in. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe regret that the text does not reflect consensus concerning the need for clarity on the voluntary nature of contributions,\u201d a US State Department official told Reuters. <\/p>\n
The US attempted to include a footnote clarifying that any contributions to the fund would be voluntary, but the committee chair did not allow it. The US objected to that denial. <\/p>\n
Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, who will preside over the COP28 talks, said he welcomed the committee\u2019s recommendations\u00a0and\u00a0that they would pave the way for an agreement at COP28. <\/p>\n\n
Countries have moved a step closer to getting a fund off the ground to help poor states\u00a0damaged by climate disasters, despite reservations from developing nations\u00a0and\u00a0the United States. The deal to create a\u00a0\u201closs\u00a0and\u00a0damage\u201d\u00a0fund was hailed as a breakthrough for developing country negotiators at United Nations climate talks in Egypt last year, overcoming years of resistance from <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}