THE Loss and Damage Fund (L&DF), agreed on in COP27, is considered a historic triumph for climate-vulnerable developing countries in the global South. Encouragingly, it came off as an early success and the highlight of the first day at the COP28, which is currently taking place in the UAE.

It took developing countries almost three decades to convince the international community to establish the L&DF to financially support the recovery and rebuilding of developing countries stricken by climate-related disasters. While climate finance mechanisms for climate mitigation and adaptation have been developed and deployed for a long time, L&DF would be dedicated to compensating for the damages and losses, including irreversible losses.

The L&DF breakthrough in COP28 underpins the consensus of the global community on climate justice, as most of the climate change-related losses take place in developing countries, which contribute very little to the problem of climate change. The formal approval and, thus the launch of the fund is an acknowledgement of differentiated responsibilities based on the principles of equity and polluter pay principle.

Countries have pledged around $400 million to compensate the developing countries to deal with climate change. This includes different levels of commitment from different parties; for example, the UAE and Germany committed $100m each, the UK committed $50m, the US promised $17.5m, and Japan pledged $10m to the fund. In addition to Germany’s $100m,........

© Dawn Business