Climate summit approves new fund to help poor countries
A new fund to help vulnerable countries hit by climate disasters should be operational this year after diplomats from nearly 200 countries approved a draft plan on Thursday on the first day of a United Nations global warming summit.
The early adoption of rules for the fund, which developing countries have fought for more than three decades, was widely seen as a positive sign ahead of the two-week summit in Dubai. Sultan Al Jaber, the Emirati oil executive chairing the conference, called the move an “important milestone” and proof that countries were willing to act with ambition on climate.
The United Arab Emirates and Germany have each committed $100 million to the fund and the United Kingdom has pledged about $76 million. Japan has pledged $10 million. The European Union would contribute at least 225 million euros (about $245 million), Wopke Hoekstra, the EU climate commissioner, said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The United States pledged $17.5 million, an amount criticized by some activists as too low for the world’s largest economy and largest historical source of greenhouse gases.
“The initial funding commitments are clearly inadequate and will be a drop in the ocean compared to the magnitude of the need they are intended to meet,” Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, an environmental group, said in a statement. “The amount announced by the US is especially shameful.”
A spokesperson for John Kerry, President Biden’s special envoy for climate change, did not immediately respond to a question about the size of the US contribution.
Although initial commitments total approximately $549 million, climate-related damage is expected to cost developing countries between $280 billion and $580 billion per year by 2030.
During last year’s UN summit in Egypt, the countries agreed to establish the so-called loss and damage fund.
That decision was widely seen as a breakthrough in one of the longest-running disputes in the United Nations climate talks: whether industrialized countries, whose high levels of greenhouse gas emissions have dangerously warmed the planet, have an obligation to help poorer countries that are least prepared , to counter climate-related weather disasters.
However, it was only a few weeks before the negotiations in Dubai, which started on Thursday, that rich and poor countries were able to reach a compromise on how to manage the fund. Nations will formally adopt the blueprint at the end of the summit, known as COP28, on December 12.
There are calls for the loss and damage fund to be temporarily transferred to the World Bank. Developing countries initially opposed this because the United States, which appoints the bank’s president, would have excessive influence over the bank.
The United States has also fought to ensure that long-industrialized countries are not the only ones contributing to the fund. Under the rules, other countries such as China and the wealthy oil states in the Gulf are also expected to contribute.
However, it remains unclear whether the United States will deliver on its own promise. Republicans, who control the House, have consistently tried to block funding to help other countries tackle climate change.
“The United States should not spend another dime on unfair U.N. slush funds,” Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, said in a statement, adding: “The Biden administration should instead focus on unleashing of American energy and lowering energy prices for families here. At home.”
David Waskow, director of the international climate initiative at the World Resources Institute, an environmental research group, said money to help countries hardest hit by disasters is something Congress should be willing to fund. But, he said, “I’m not sure current politics would allow this.”