Climate ‘loss and damage’ dominates UAE talks ahead of COP28

AFP | Abu Dhabi                                              

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Setting up a “loss and damage” fund for poorer nations hit by climate change dominated preliminary talks yesterday one month before COP28 in Dubai, where delegates look set to tussle over the future of fossil fuels.

Around 70 ministers have gathered since Monday at the Emirates Palace, a luxurious resort in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi, to hammer out details before next month’s UN climate summit, the most important since the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015.

“The main focus for the moment is clearly the loss and damage fund,” said French Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher. The agreement to set up a dedicated fund to help vulnerable countries cope with climate “loss and damage” was a flagship achievement of last year’s COP27 talks in Egypt.

But countries left the details to be worked out later. “We were one or two days away from an agreement” during the last round, a European negotiator said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the issue. But several disagreements, including on beneficiaries, delayed a breakthrough.

“The United States does not want to put in a penny if China is a potential beneficiary,” the negotiator said. Earlier in July, Jaber, who heads the UAE’s oil giant ADNOC, said that “phasing down fossil fuels is inevitable” -- a statement he has not repeated this week.

“It ’s too early (for discussions), and would block negotiations even before the start of the COP,” said a member of his entourage on condition of anonymity. A fossil fuel phaseout is already implicit in other commitments, including one to triple renewable energy Agency.