Stage set for conflict at COP28 with mixed response to outcome of key climate talks
World Bank would temporarily host the fund for the next four years.
The United States and several developing countries expressed disappointment in the draft agreement, which will be sent for global leaders to sign at the COP28 climate conference, which begins in Dubai later this month.
The US State Department, whose officials joined the negotiations in Abu Dhabi, said in a statement it was “pleased with an agreement being reached” but regretted that the consensus reached among negotiators about donations to the fund being voluntary is not reflected in the final agreement.
The agreement lays out basic goals for the fund, including for its planned launch in 2024, and specifies how it will be administered and who will oversee it, including a requirement for developing countries to have a seat on the board, in addition to the World Bank's role.
Avinash Persaud, a special envoy to Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley on climate finance, said the agreement was “a challenging but critical outcome. It was one of those things where success can be measured in the equality of discomfort.” Persaud negotiated on behalf of Latin America and the Caribbean in the meetings.
He said that failure to reach an agreement would have “cast a long shadow over COP.”
Mohamed Nasr, the lead negotiator from Egypt, last year’s climate conference host, said, “It falls short on some items, particularly the scale and the sources (of funding), and (an) acknowledgment of cost incurred by developing countries.”
The demand for establishing a fund to help poor countries hit hard by climate change has been a focus of U.N.
