Bengaluru, Nov 6 (AP) Tense negotiations at the final meeting on an international fund set up to help poor countries most affected by global warming ended in Abu Dhabi on Saturday with participants agreeing to Expressed that the World Bank will temporarily monitor this fund for the next four years.
The US and several developing countries have expressed disappointment over the draft agreement which will be sent to world leaders for signature at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai this month.
US State Department officials attending the talks in Abu Dhabi said in a statement that they were “pleased that an agreement has been reached” but regretted that negotiators had not reached an agreement on voluntary donations to the fund. The consensus was not reflected in the final agreement.
The agreement sets out basic goals for the use of the fund, including its launch in 2024 and how it will be implemented and who will monitor it.
Avinash Persaud, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s special envoy on climate finance, said the agreement was a “challenging but important outcome.” Persaud spoke on behalf of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean at the meetings.
He said failure to reach any such agreement would have “long-term implications for the COP”.
Egypt’s chief negotiator Mohamed Nasser said, “It fails to live up to some expectations, particularly the scale and sources of financing and the acknowledgment of the price paid by developing countries.”
The creation of a fund to help poor countries most affected by climate change has been a prominent call since UN climate talks began 30 years ago, and was finally adopted at last year’s climate conference in Egypt.
Since then, a small group of negotiators from both rich and developing countries have met several times to finalize the details of the fund.
AP
Gola Simmi
Simmi
