The board of the fund has agreed on a name and a host country at a meeting in South Korea, but trickier issues remain
In Hurricane Beryl’s shadow, loss and damage fund makes progress on
set-up
The board of the fund has agreed on a name and a host country at a
meeting in South Korea, but trickier issues remain
As Caribbean nations tallied the destruction caused by the passage of
Hurricane Beryl, the board of the fund set up to compensate for such
devastating loss and damage held its second meeting this week.
“The level of damage is apocalyptic,” said Henrietta Elizabeth Thompson
from Barbados, among the countries worst hit by the natural disaster, at
the start of the four-day session in Incheon, South Korea.
The board needs to create a fund that “reflects the scale of the
magnitude, of the risk, the damage and devastation faced by people
across the world and the urgency required to respond to it,” she
added.
But before the fund starts handing out any money in future, board
members have to agree on procedural matters.
A name and a place
On the opening day, the Philippines was picked as the host of the
fund’s board in a secret vote by members. The Southeast Asian nation
defeated bids from seven other candidates: Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia,
Bahamas, Barbados, Eswatini, Kenya and Togo.
Selecting a host country was one of the most pressing priorities for
this week’s meeting. It represented a first necessary step for the board
to take up a legal personality and enter into formal agreements with the
World Bank, set to host the loss and damage fund on an interim
basis.
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While the administrative staff of the fund will be based at the World
Bank, the board will carry out some of its meetings in the Philippines
in the future, likely in the capital Manila. The country’s proposal
scored particularly high thanks to its abundant transport options and
accommodation facilities and its visa free entry for short stays for
most visitors, according to a background paper.
A man stands in a home where the roof was ripped apart, in the
aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, in St. Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica, July 5,
2024. REUTERS/Maria Alejandra Cardona
The somewhat thorny issue of what to officially call the fund also
landed on the table in South Korea.
For nearly all climate talks participants, it’s simply been the “loss
and damage fund” since it was adopted at COP27, but the United States
have made various attempts at a rebrand. At COP28 in Dubai, for example,
then U.S. climate envoy John Kerry kept referring to the “fund for
climate impact response” – a more neutral label that softened the
suggestion of developed countries’ historical responsibility.
In consultations ahead of the meeting, the co-chairs of the board
collected various options, from the minimalistic “the Fund” to the
highly technocratic “Fund referred to in decisions 1/CP.28 and
5/CMA.5”.
Ultimately, members decided to go with “Fund for responding to Loss and
Damage”, abbreviated as FLD, without spending much time debating the
matter.
Beware the ‘billions’
Divisions cropped up when the discussion turned to the process of
selecting the executive director (ED). Hoping to announce the name of
the executive director at COP29 this November, the board had to agree at
this session on the criteria for picking the fund’s boss, including the
roles and responsibilities.
Several board members from developing countries wanted the ED’s job
description to mention efforts to find additional money for the fund at
the scale of billions. “If you have someone running a fund of 100
million, this is totally different from 10 billion, 55 billion, or 100
billion,” said Egypt’s Mohamed Nasr, “the scale of this fund is not
confined to where it is”.
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Countries have pledged around $700 million to the fund so far, with
Italy, Germany, France and the United Arab Emirates among the biggest
contributors. The United States has pledged only $17.5 million. South
Korea pledged $7 million at this week’s meeting. The residual costs from
loss and damage is projected to reach a total of $290 billion to $580
billion by 2030, according to a 2018 study.
But some developed country board members, including the US, rejected
the proposal of including a reference to “billions”, according to
observers.
“It is clear that developed nations…remain non-committal about scaling
financial mobilisation,” said Harjeet Singh, global engagement director
for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, who attended
the meeting. “The initial commitments of a few hundred million dollars
are merely a drop in the ocean compared to the real and escalating costs
of climate change that developing countries endure,” he added.
Eventually, board members found a compromise wording. The ED will be
asked to lead efforts to grow the fund’s resources “towards contributing
to a response at scale to respond to climate-induced loss and
damage”.
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The recruitment process will now go underway with the goal of putting a
shortlist of candidates in front of the board by the next meeting
scheduled for September 18-20 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Legal agreements
Between now and then, there will be little time for a summer break.
After approving last June the conditions of hosting the fund, the World
Bank now has until August 12 to share with board members the draft text
of the agreements detailing how that will work in practice. It will
include things like provisions to handle the money and give access to
recipients and the rules governing the relationship between the board
and the World Bank.
Developing countries and civil society groups are eager to see
guarantees that communities in hard-hit countries will be able to access
funds directly without going through various intermediary agencies.
“Agreeing and certifying these agreements will be the most important
decision at the next board meeting”, said Liane Schalatek, associate
director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Washington who attended the
board meeting. “The World Bank has shared an outline of what they will
include, but we are talking about legal agreements so the devil is in
the detail”.
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