APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Claver Gatete, has commended COP27 for setting up the Loss and Damage Fund.
This process started nearly three decades ago and concluded at the start of the ongoing Conference of the Parties (COP 28), dwelling on climate change in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Speaking at a side event on assessing loss and damage: methodological challenges and prospects, Gatete said, “COP28 has started positively, with the adoption of the recommendations of the Transitional Committee on Loss and Damage; The loss and damage fund, with funding pledges amounting to over $400 million so far, marks the beginning of a very important era in our efforts to address climate change and its impact.
The side event is organised by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Union on the sidelines of COP 28 in Dubai on 3 December 2023.
“Loss and damage”, the harms inflicted by climate change that go beyond what people can adapt to, refers to a range of impacts including lost lives; monetary costs from the destruction of infrastructure, buildings, crops and other property; loss of ecosystems and cultures, and so on. After nearly three decades of negotiation, COP27 reached an historic agreement to create and operationalize a fund to help lower-income countries respond to and recover from climate change induced losses and damages.
Delegates meeting in Dubai for COP28 on 30 November 2023, agreed on the operationalisation of a fund that would help compensate vulnerable countries coping with loss and damage caused by climate change by ensuring that vital infrastructure can be rebuilt or replaced with more sustainable versions.
“We are aware that there is much work to be done to make the fund operational. We are optimistic that before the end of this COP, we will have agreed upon the necessary arrangements to make the fund operational and receive more pledges to make it financially viable,” he said.
According to the executive secretary, projections show that the economic costs of climate change in developing countries will reach between $290 billion and $580 billion annually by 2030.
Thus, there is a need to rapidly scale up funding for Loss and Damage, including diversification of funding sources and domestic resource mobilisation.
The side event highlighted that $200 billion is needed for the loss and damage fund to become operational.
Gatete informed the meeting that UNECA is working on updating the model-based methodology that was initially developed in 2013 to help member states have accurate information regarding fund allocation.
MG/as/APA