Tag: Loss and Damage

Is the Loss and Damage Fund all that it promises to be? Examining some of the Fund’s shortcomings and putting things into perspective after COP 28

Posted on by foluke.adebisi

By Alexia Kaplan, LLM Student, University of Bristol Law School,

Friends of the Earth International

COP 28, the latest United Nations Climate Conference, came to an end in December 2023. It began with an agreement to launch the loss and damage fund, which was kick-started by the UAE’s $100 million pledge. A further 15 countries followed suit, making pledges of varying amounts, and by 2 December 2023, a cumulative total of $655.9 million had been pledged to the loss and damage fund. The fund has been heralded by many as the biggest success of the entire conference and a historic agreement – being the first time that a substantive decision was adopted on the first day of the Conference. The delegates of nations present from around the world, rose in a standing ovation when the agreement was passed. (more…)

Loss and Damage in Developed Countries: Who or what gets left behind?

Posted on by foluke.adebisi

by Temitope Tunbi Onifade, University of Bristol Law School

                                                  

Vanuatu’s proposal for ‘an International Climate Fund to finance measures to counter the adverse consequences of climate change, and a separate International Insurance Pool to provide financial insurance against the consequences of sea level rise’ put the issue of loss and damage on the agenda during the negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1991. This agenda has evolved to refer to negotiations on ways to address extreme weather and slow onset events not fully dealt with by adaptation measures. Powerful jurisdictions such as the United States and European Union uniformly opposed it when it first came up and for many years after. However, this attitude has gradually changed at subsequent meetings of the highest decision-making body of the convention, called Conference of the Parties (COP). (more…)