Tensions soar over new fund for climate 'loss and damage' ahead of COP28

(Context, 24 Oct 2023) A committee working on how the fund should operate is split on key issues a few weeks before its launch due at COP28 climate summit.

Fears are growing that disagreements between rich and poor nations over how to manage a new fund to tackle the "loss and damage" caused by wilder weather and rising seas could throw the COP28 U.N. climate summit in Dubai into disarray.

A "transitional committee" working out the details of the fund - which countries agreed to set up at last year's COP27 climate conference - failed in Egypt late last week to issue a set of recommendations on how to get it up and running, after clashing over whether it should be hosted by the World Bank.

Developed countries, led by the United States, are pushing for the fund to be based at the bank, while developing nations argue this would tip the balance of power towards wealthy governments and make it hard for them to tap into the funding.

The G77 and China group of developing countries would prefer an independent loss and damage fund that can set its own rules, or one housed at a U.N. agency.

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Context, 24 Oct 2023: Tensions soar over new fund for climate 'loss and damage' ahead of COP28