COP28 participants approved the creation of a climate compensation fund

On the first day of the UN climate summit (COP28), its participants approved the creation of a fund from which funds will be directed to poor countries suffering from natural disasters and climate change, reports Reuters.

Negotiations on the operating mechanisms of such a fund took place between UN members for more than a year. Its formal approval should be followed by statements from summit participants about their readiness to invest their funds. Some countries have already announced their first investments in the fund. Thus, the United Arab Emirates, which is the host of the summit, announcedthat they will invest $100 million in the fund. Germany is ready to donate the same amount. Britain said it would contribute at least $51 million to the fund, the United States – $17.5 million, and Japan – $10 million. At the same time, as some summit participants noted in conversations with Reuters, the parties have not yet been able to clearly formulate a mechanism for replenishing the fund in the future .

According to The Wall Street Journal, for the first four years of its existence, the fund will be managed by the World Bank, based in Washington, but the fund will have its own secretariat. The fund’s board in the future will be able to decide that the World Bank will continue to manage the fund on an ongoing basis. But to do this, the board will have to make sure that the fund is sufficiently independent from the World Bank. Its independence from developed country institutions has been one of the key demands of developing countries who have been asking for the fund for several years. As for replenishing the fund, so far the countries have agreed that it will be carried out in the form of voluntary donations.

Kirill Sarkhanyants