COP28: Of pledges and compromises

livemint.com:

What is the structure and scope of the new L&D Fund? An exclusive L&D Fund was formed in the dying hours at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh as SIDS, Africa and other developing countries insisted upon a dedicated corpus to aid developing countries reeling under climate change-induced extreme weather and slow onset events. Though the fund was formed, decisions on its structure, scope and character were left for Dubai. A transitional committee constituted to shape the fund made recommendations after multiple meetings over the past year.

The L&D Fund, which is to be operated under the finance mechanism of the UNFCCC, will be put into operation by the World Bank and hosted by it for an interim period of four years. As a new channel of multilateral finance, it will assist developing countries in responding to both “economic and non-economic loss and damage associated with adverse effects of climate change". It will financially help combat challenges posed by rising sea levels, displacement, relocation, migration, insufficient climate information and data, and the need for climate-resilient reconstruction and recovery.

Financing will be in the form of “grants and highly concessional loans" with a minimum percentage allocation for least developed countries and SIDS. Financial contribution to the fund is voluntary, with developed countries taking the lead. However, the scale of L&D Fund is unspecified in the text though the estimated financial requirement to deal with loss and damage is pegged at about $400 billion a year.