COP28 was held in Dubai from November 30 to December 13, 2023 to make substantial progress on the Paris Agreement and negotiate many vital issues to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

The first and most important outcome of the conference was the announcement made on the first day to operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund (L&D), followed by $700 million pledges made by various countries for the L&D Fund. While this was appreciated by the countries present at the conference, there are several challenges ahead for the L&D Fund to fully operationalize and achieve its objectives.

First, the $700 million pledged to the Loss and Damage Fund covers less than 0.2 per cent of the amount required to cover the losses faced by developing countries because of climate change catastrophes.

There are key questions related to the working of the L&D Fund: the mode of fund distribution, mechanism of selection of recipient country, accountability of fund utilization in the recipient countries, etc. The parties need to deliberate and find sustainable mechanisms for the smooth functioning of this Fund.

The second central outcome of COP28 was the Global Stocktake agreed by a majority of the 200 participating countries.........

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