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COP28: Poor countries win 30-year fight for climate cash as Loss and Damage Fund becomes a reality
In a surprise that has lit up COP28, delegates have agreed to launch a long-awaited fund to pay for damage from climate-driven storms and drought.
Such deals are normally sealed last minute after days of negotiations.
COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber shook up the meeting by bringing the decision to the floor on day one.
The EU, UK, US and others immediately announced contributions totalling around $400m for poor countries reeling from the impacts of climate change.
Three decades after the idea was first mooted, the ‘loss and damage’ cash agreement was greeted with sustained applause on the conference floor.
It was seen as a smart move by the UAE, which has been criticised in the run up to the COP, after the BBC reported on Monday that leaked briefing documents revealed plans by the United Arab Emirates to discuss fossil fuel deals with 15 nations.
“It’s a very clever way to open the conference on the part of the UAE,” said Prof Michael Jacobs from the University of Sheffield and an observer at these talks. “They have gotten in the very first session, one of the most important parts of this whole conference agreed, a very contentious part, the United States was not happy just a few weeks ago with the text on this loss and damage fund, and it’s agreed to it today.”
Loss and damage refers to the impacts that many countries suffer from climate-related weather events.
While funding has been provided to help countries adapt to rising temperatures, and to aid their efforts to rein in their emissions, no money has been forthcoming to help with the destruction caused by storms and droughts. The idea of finding cash for these losses was first introduced in the 1990s.
For decades, richer countries fought tooth and nail against the idea of such a fund, wary of having to pay “compensation” for historic carbon emissions.
Last year at COP27 in Egypt, the moral force of the argument won the day and countries agreed to set up a fund. Over the past 12 months countries had argued about the rules, where the fund should be located and who should pay in. A tentative agreement was reached a few weeks before this gathering in Dubai.
Any such deal would normally have to be accepted by all countries in a plenary session, where negotiators can go through the text with a fine-tooth comb, often leading to major arguments. This usually happens at the end of a COP after days and nights of wrangling.
“We have delivered history today,” Jaber told delegates as the motion was passed without a fight. Immediately the UAE made a pledge of $100m as did Germany. The US says it will pay in $17m, providing it can find agreement with Congress. They wanted all countries to know that paying in didn’t mean they accepted that the fund was about reparations for historic emissions.
“We have been working very, very closely with other transitional committee members this entire year in order to design an effective fund that is based on cooperation and does not involve liability or compensation,” said US Special Climate Envoy, John Kerry.
The UK promised £60m to the fund. Campaigners said it was a small step in the right direction. “It is encouraging to see that the UK Government is committed to making the Loss and Damage Fund a reality, but this pledge is simply not enough and crucially, it’s not new money,” said Chiara Liguori, Oxfam’s Senior Climate Justice Policy Advisor.
It’s hoped the deal will provide the momentum for an ambitious wider agreement on action during the summit.
The stakes for that couldn’t be higher: the day began with stark warnings from the UN chief that “we are living through climate collapse in real time”. António Guterres said the news that it’s “virtually certain” 2023 will be the hottest year on record should “send shivers down the spines of world leaders”.
(BBC)
The India and Zimbabwe women’s teams are all set to play an international fixture against each other for the first time when Zimbabwe tour India for white-ball fixtures this October.
The tour comprises three T20Is and three ODIs and will be Zimbabwe’s first visit to India; India are yet to tour Zimbabwe for bilateral fixtures.
The three T20Is will be played in Raipur on October 16, 18 and 20, and the ODIs are on October 23, 25 and 28 in Baroda.
The fixtures were announced by the BCCI on Wednesday, along with two home series for the India A women’s side against Australia A in September and England A in December. Both those series comprise three T20s, three List A games and one multi-day fixture.
The India Under-19 women’s team will also host Sri Lanka U-19 in June and July for three T20s and three 50-over games, and England U-19 in November and December for five T20 fixtures.
The Australia A men’s side will tour India for two multi-day fixtures and three one-dayers in September and October, while the Australia U-19 side will visit India for two multi-day fixtures and three one-dayers also in September and October.
[Cricinfo]
Oil prices have dropped and global stock markets have risen following reports that the US and Iran are close to a deal to end the war.
Brent crude futures, the global benchmark oil price, fell to $97 (£73) a barrel after the reports before rebounding to over $101. The price was over $108 earlier in the day.
The FTSE 100 index of London’s largest public firms and Germany’s Dax index closed over 2% up while the French Cac 40 was up 3%. Asian indexes also ended the day higher while the US S&P 500 was up by more than 1% over the day.
The market movements come after Axios reported that the US believes it is close to a one-page document which will end the war and set up detailed nuclear talks.
Hours later, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson told Iranian Students’ News Agency that the US proposal to end the war with Iran was still being considered.
However, not long after that, Trump suggested a deal could still be a way off.
He said on Truth Social that any agreement by the Iranians is “a big assumption” and that a failure to come to a deal will result at bombardments “at a much higher level and intensity ” than was the case during Operation Epic Fury.
Oil prices are still much higher than the $70 a barrel they were hovering around before the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, which has caused caused production and transportation of oil in the region to slump.
Central to the conflict is Iran’s threat to attack oil ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway south of the country, in response to US-Israeli strikes since 28 February.
About a fifth of global oil and gas shipments usually cross the strait, which has been effectively closed for weeks. Global gas prices have also soared since the conflict began.
As for stock markets, the big European bourses are lower than they were at the end of February, while the S&P 500 climbed by more than 1%.
The main Asian markets all rose on Wednesday, with the South Korean Kospi closing up 6.45%, the Hong Kong Hang Seng ending the day up 1.22%, and the Japanese Nikkei finishing 0.38% higher.
The Hang Seng is down since the start of war, but the other two are up.
[BBC]
Pakistan Women 343/4 in 50 overs (Sadaf Shamas 101, Gull Feroza 100, Sidra Amin 59; Christina Mutasa 1-19, Lindokuhle Mabhero 1-52, Olinder Chare 1-40, Nomvelo Sibanda 1-61) beat Zimbabwe Women 137 in 39 overs (Runyararo Pasipanodya 33*; Fatima Sana 3-15, Diana Baig 1-23, Momina Riasat 2-39, Rameem Shamim 2-20, Syed Aroob Shah 2-18) by 206 runs
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