Today is Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Loss and Damage Fund moves on towards final decision, the "XXX number" (Read this article until the end).
As part of the pre COP-28 official events, in its 5th meeting held last November 3-4 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the United Nations Transitional Committee reached an agreement on recommendations for implementing a fund for vulnerable nations suffering from the effects of climate change.
At last year's COP-27, Governments agreed to create the fund, known as a loss and damage fund, but details were scant at the time. The Transitional Committee was given the responsibility to establishing institutional arrangements, modalities, structure, governance and terms of reference for the fund. And identifying and expanding sources of funding, among others. Click here to read more about these expectations.
As the next step, these recent recommendations will now be shared with national governments in order to line up necessary capital and operationalize the fund, for - hopefully - final presentation at COP-28. Here you have the - enthusiastic - press release by the COP-28 President Dr. Sultan Al Jaber.
Click at the image below for the official proposal document "Operationalization of the new funding arrangements, including a fund, for responding to loss and damage".
In there, among the committee’s recommendations you will read:
"Invite the World Bank ... to operationalize the Fund as a World Bank-hosted Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) for an interim period of 4 years ..." (page 3);
"The purpose of the Fund is to assist developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change in responding to economic and non-economic loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including extreme weather events and slow-onset events." (page 5); and
"The Fund will provide finance for addressing a variety of challenges associated with the adverse effects of climate change, such as climate-related emergencies, sea level rise, displacement, relocation, migration, insufficient climate information and data, and the need for climate-resilient reconstruction and recovery." (also on page 5);
Worth mentioning the following proposed structure to the Board of the Fund, with 26 members:
(a) 12 members from developed countries;
(b) 3 members from the Asia-Pacific States;
(c) 3 members from the African States;
(d) 3 members from the Latin American and the Caribbean States;
(e) 2 members from small island developing States;
(f) 2 members from the least developed countries;
(g) 1 member from developing countries not included in the regional groups and constituencies above.
Let's see which number wil replace the "XXX" indicated in this recommendation: "Welcome the offers of XXX to contribute to the Fund" (page 2).
The Transitional Committee currently comprises 24 members from Parties to the Convention and Paris Agreement, with 10 members from developed country Parties and 14 members from developing country Parties.
