Fault lines over Loss and Damage fund deepen at key climate meet

Major disagreements have cropped up between rich and developing countries on the Loss and Damage fund at the fourth meeting of the Transitional Committee on the operationalization of the new funding arrangements for responding to loss and damage being held in Aswan, Egypt.

- Jayashree Nandi

The agenda of the meeting is to finalise several issues related to how the fund will operate including the location of the fund, funding arrangements, who will contribute to the fund among others. One of the major contentions is that the rich countries led by the US are seeking to locate the fund under the World Bank and are not supportive of the proposal that the Fund be a "body under international law possessing international legal personality."

Operationalising the Loss and Damage fund is among the key deliverables at the upcoming UN Climate Conference (COP28) to be held in Dubai this December.

The fourth and final transitional committee meeting is being held from October 17 to 20. But as on Thursday there was a logjam on the location of the fund, whether the fund would have an "independent legal personality", and who would benefit from the fund.