COP28: a year on from climate change funding breakthrough, poor countries eye disappointment at Dubai summit

Lisa Vanhala, UCL

At the COP27 summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, an agreement to establish a loss and damage fund was hailed as a major breakthrough on one of the trickiest topics in the UN climate change negotiations. In an otherwise frustrating conference, this decision in November 2022 acknowledged the help that poorer and low-emitting countries in particular need to deal with the consequences of climate change – and, tentatively, who ought to pay.

This following year has seen more extreme weather records broken. Torrential rains created flooding which swept away an entire city in Libya, while wildfires razed swathes of Canada, Greece and the Hawaiian island of Maui.

As these events become routine worldwide, the case grows for an effective fund that can be set up quickly and help those most vulnerable to climate change. But after a year of talks, the fund has, so far, failed to materialise in the way that developing countries had hoped.

I’m writing a book on UN governance of loss and damage, and have been following the negotiations since 2013. Here’s what happened after the negotiators went home and what to watch out for when they return, this time at COP28 in Dubai.

Big questions

Many questions were raised and left unresolved in Sharm El-Sheikh. Among them: who will pay into this new fund? Where will it sit? Who will have power over it? And who will have access to the funding (and who won’t)?

A transitional committee with 14 developing country members and 10 developed country members was appointed by the UN to debate these questions after COP27. The committee has met regularly over the last year, but at its fourth meeting at the end of October – scheduled as the last session – important questions surrounding the fund, such as who should host and administer it, remained. Discussions broke down without an agreement.

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Nos projections climatiques pour l’an 2500 montrent que la Terre sera inhospitalière pour les humains

Les prévisions actuelles concernant l’avenir du climat ne vont pas assez loin.
Shutterstock

Christopher Lyon, McGill University; Alex Dunhill, University of Leeds; Andrew P. Beckerman, University of Sheffield; Ariane Burke, Université de Montréal; Bethany Allen, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich; Chris Smith, University of Leeds; Daniel J. Hill, University of Leeds; Erin Saupe, University of Oxford; James McKay, University of Leeds; Julien Riel-Salvatore, Université de Montréal; Lindsay C. Stringer, University of York; Rob Marchant, University of York et Tracy Aze, University of Leeds

De nombreux rapports basés sur des recherches scientifiques évoquent les effets à long terme des changements climatiques, tels que l’augmentation des niveaux de gaz à effet de serre, des températures et des mers, d’ici 2100. L’Accord de Paris exige que nous limitions le réchauffement à moins de 2 degrés Celsius d’ici la fin du siècle par rapport au niveau préindustriel.

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A WORLD AT RISK Annual report on global preparedness for health emergencies Global Preparedness Monitoring Board September 2019

UN MONDO A RISCHIO
Rapporto annuale sulla preparazione globale alle emergenze sanitarie

Il rapporto 2019
Questo primo Rapporto elaborato da un
organo indipendente di monitoraggio, il Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (di seguito denominato come il Board o GPMB)  sollecita iniziative politiche per preparare e mitigare gli effetti delle emergenze sanitarie globali. Promosso e  convocato a maggio 2018 dal Gruppo della Banca mondiale e dall’Organizzazione mondiale della sanità, il Board si basa sul lavoro di Task force e panel di crisi sanitarie globali, creati dal segretario generale delle Nazioni Unite sulla scia dell’ epidemia di Ebola 2016. Il Board lavora indipendentemente da tutte le parti, compresi i suoi promotori, per fornire valutazioni e raccomandazioni le più oggettive possibili.
Nel primo Rapporto viene denunciata la impreparazione degli stati membri anche sviluppati ad affrontare una pandemia con crisi respiratorie a causa del definanziamento dei SSN e delle strutture di protezione civile. Purtroppo questo Rapporto è stato profetico.

IL RAPPORTO GPMB