 //sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126682800&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33546394&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126682801&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33546394&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126682802&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33546394&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126682803&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33546394&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
//sli.reutersmedia.net/imp?s=126682804&li=&e=gjjtuyu768@gmail.com&p=33546394&stpe=pixel” width=”2″ height=”6″ border=”0″ /> |
|
|
|
By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital
|
Hello!
Day one at the United Nations 28th Conference of the Parties ended successfully in the United Arab Emirates, as COP28 President Dr. Sultan Al Jaber pounded his gavel on a historic agreement on a previously contentious issue – climate disaster funds.
It’s official, climate disaster funds have been agreed upon for developing nations that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, otherwise known in the negotiations as “loss and damage fund”.
Delegates opened the door for governments to announce contributions. UAE, COP28 host, offered $100 million, Britain pledged at least $51 million, $17.5 million were added from the United States, and $10 million from Japan. Later, the European Union pledged $245.4 million, which included $100 million pledged by Germany.
But some groups were cautious about celebrating the fund’s early adoption, noting there were still unresolved issues including how the fund would be financed in the future.
There is also a myriad of financial protection options, including pre-arranged finance (PAF) like catastrophe bonds, parametric insurance and other loan structures such as risk pools that guarantee a set, speedier payout in the event of disaster.
However, accessing them is hard for many countries amid punishing debt burdens, heightened by recent surge in global interest rates.
Here is a rundown of what to watch at COP28 on Friday.
|
|
|
Delegates adopt a new fund to help poor nations cope with costly climate disasters at COP28, Dubai, UAE. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky
|
|
|
|
- Low-income countries are struggling to access insurance, catastrophe bonds and other hedging mechanisms that could help protect them from the economic fallout of climate change, industry sources told Reuters. Click here for a Reuters article by Alessandro Parodi, Simon Jessop and Libby George.
- The U.N. climate summit clinched an early victory, with delegates adopting a new fund to help poor nations cope with costly climate disasters. In establishing the fund on the first day of the two-week COP28 conference, delegates opened the door for governments to announce contributions.
- U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged world leaders at the COP28 climate summit to plan for a future without fossil fuels, saying there was no other way to rein in global warming.
- United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whose country is hosting the COP28 climate summit, announced on Friday the establishment of a $30 billion climate fund for global climate solutions that aims to attract $250 billion of investment by the end of the decade.
|
|
|
An aerial view from a helicopter shows flooded compounds following heavy rains in Garissa, Kenya. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya.
|
|
|
- Severe flooding caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon has killed 120 people in Kenya, while people in almost 90,000 households have been forced to leave their homes, the government said.
- Climate change is the biggest health threat in Africa and the rest of the world, the head of the continent’s public health agency said. Mitigating that risk was top of his agenda, Jean Kaseya, the director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told Reuters.
- Mexico has labeled hundreds of millions of dollars in spending on fossil fuel infrastructure at state energy company Pemex and state electricity utility CFE as expenditure to address climate change and promote energy transition over the past decade, documents show. Click here for the report from Reuters journalists Stefanie Eschenbacher and Simon Jessop.
- The Ethereum blockchain’s historical greenhouse gas emissions before a major software upgrade last year were equivalent to the yearly emissions of Honduras, a University of Cambridge study showed.
|
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ message during the launch of the World Meteorological Organization’s State of Climate report:
“We are living through climate collapse in real time – and the impact is devastating.
“This year has seen communities around the world pounded by fires, floods, and searing temperatures.
“Record global heating should send shivers down the spines of world leaders.
“We must also go further and faster in protecting people from climate chaos.
“Every person on Earth must be protected by an early warning system by 2027, by putting in place the action plan we launched last year.
“And every vulnerable developing country should have the support they need to develop and implement adaptation investment plan by 2025.
“Leaders must get the Loss and Damage Fund off to a flying start, with generous, early contributions.
“Developed countries must honor the promise to deliver $100 billion a year in climate finance;
“And they must present a clear plan showing how they will make good on their commitment to double adaptation finance by 2025, as a first step to ensuring at least half of all climate finance goes to adaptation.
“Leaders must get us out of it – starting at COP28.”
|
|
|
Emerging economies need climate finance, help with technology and the right to pursue development, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said before leaving for the UN climate summit in Dubai.
Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said India expects a clear roadmap on climate financing at COP28 and has always been upfront about its support for a “loss-and-damage” fund aimed at helping countries recover from environmental degradation caused by industrial development.
|
|
|
Sustainable Switch is sent three times a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here.
Want to stop receiving this newsletter? Unsubscribe here.
To manage which newsletters you’re signed up for, click here.
|
|
|
|
