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Ecology & Environment
Mahesh

09/11/23 10:30 AM IST

‘Loss and damage’ fund

In News
  • The establishment of a Loss and Damage Fund was, for many, the highlight of the United Nations Climate Conference (COP 27) and the culmination of decades of pressure from climate-vulnerable developing countries.
  • The fund aims to provide financial assistance to nations most vulnerable and impacted by the effects of climate change.
Loss and Damage Fund
  • The call for affluent nations to acknowledge their accountability for historic pollution is more than 30 years old.
  • Historic pollution has elevated the world’s average surface temperature by more than 1 degree Celsius and is currently inflicting damage worldwide, but especially in the poorest nations.
  • At the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP 19) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Warsaw, Poland, in 2013, representatives of member countries formally agreed to establish the L&D fund.
  • It was being created to provide financial and technical assistance to economically developing nations that were incurring L&D due to climate change.
  • At COP 25, the Santiago Network for L&D was set up, but countries didn’t commit any funds. Subsequently, at COP 26, the Glasgow Dialogue on finance for L&D was established to continue discussions over the next three years on the fund.
  • Finally, at COP 27 in November 2022, after intense negotiations, representatives of the UNFCCC’s member states agreed to set up the L&D fund and a Transitional Committee (TC) to figure out how the new funding mechanisms under the fund would operate.
Implications of TC5
  • An impromptu fifth meeting of the TC, i.e. TC5, in Abu Dhabi concluded a few days back, and a set of recommendations have been drafted and forwarded to COP 28.
  • The TC5 outcome highlights a profound lack of trust between affluent and emerging economics regarding their historical responsibilities, creating a substantial divide between wealthy and impoverished nations, particularly concerning climate reparations.
  • The unwillingness of wealthy nations to fulfil intended commitments undermines faith in global climate negotiations and hampers the cooperative spirit necessary to address climate change.
  • It represents a missed chance to take concrete steps to combat the escalating consequences of climate change on vulnerable communities and signifies a breakdown in diplomatic efforts, leading to doubts about nations’ ability to collaborate effectively.
  • The discontent among developing nations steps from the perception that their concerns and needs are not adequately addressed by the international community, making the path to climate action – and indeed other global issues – even more complicated.
  • Beyond the immediate diplomatic and trust-related repercussions, the watering down of the L&D fund has wide-reaching implications as well. It threatens climate justice and exacerbates the suffering of vulnerable communities in developing nations. These communities have contributed minimally to global еmissions but today bear the brunt of climate change.
  • The watering down can also increase the number of humanitarian crises, including via food shortage, people displacement, and conflict, and force communities to cope independently with a worsening climate and its consequences.
  • Without adequate L&D funds, there will also be limited capacity to address environmental degradation and the loss of vital ecosystems, which will further worsen environmental crises, causing irreversible harm to the earth.
Climate Justice through L&D
  • A successful response to climate change requires us to balance the proactive measures of adaptation with the moral and financial responsibility of addressing the losses and damages that are – regrettably – an inescapable part of a climate-altered world.
  • The L&D fund was conceived as a critical component of global climate action, recognising that some of the consequences of climate change are irreversible and beyond the capacity of vulnerable nations to handle.
  • So to achieve climate justice, rich countries must meet their obligations to reduce emissions and deliver finance in line with what is fair, and thus uphold the principles of equity, justice, and solidarity in the face of a changing climate.
Source- The Hindu

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