Launching The Loss And Damage Fund At COP28:
On the opening day of the Conference of the Parties (COP28) climate conference in Dubai, a loss and damage fund to help vulnerable countries cope with the impact of climate change was officially launched.
- Loss and Damage Fund was first announced during COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
- It is a global financial package to ensure the rescue and rehabilitation of countries facing the cascading effects of climate change.
- The term refers to the compensation that rich nations, whose industrial growth has resulted in global warming and driven the planet into a climate crisis, must pay to poor nations, whose carbon footprint is low but are facing the brunt of rising sea levels, floods, crippling droughts, and intense cyclones, among others.
- The changing climate has impacted lives, livelihoods, biodiversity, cultural traditions, and identities.
- Loss and damage is often categorised as either economic or non-economic.
- Economic loss and damage are negative impacts that one can assign a monetary value to.
- These are things such as the costs of rebuilding infrastructure that has been damaged due to floods or the loss of revenue from crops that were destroyed due to drought.
- Non-economic loss and damage are negative impacts where it is difficult or infeasible to assign a monetary value.
- These are things such as trauma from experiencing a tropical cyclone, loss of community due to displacement of people, or loss of biodiversity.
- The World Bank will oversee the loss and damage fund in the beginning, with the source of funds being rich nations such as the US, the UK, and the EU, as well as some developing countries.
