The United Nations Climate Change Conference adopted on Sunday a resolution providing for the creation of a fund to finance the climate damage already suffered by the countries most vulnerable to the effects of global warming.
The decision, described as historic, was adopted by consensus at the plenary assembly that ended the climate conference in Egypt and was greeted by resounding applause from all the representatives in the stalls.
Delegates agreed to establish loss and damage financing mechanisms in the first minutes of a meeting that convened after 4 a.m. in Sharm El-Sheikh, but continued to deliberate on other issues such as the transition away from fuels and controlling greenhouse gas emissions.
As reflected in the text, the countries have established consensus on the «immediate need» to provide «new, additional, predictable and adequate» financial resources to assist developing countries that are in a vulnerable position with respect to the «economic and non-economic» impacts of climate change.
In this regard, reference is made to forced displacement and the effects on cultural heritage, mobility and livelihoods, as well as the livelihoods of communities, and they stress the importance of an «effective and adequate» response to loss and damage.
The countries have agreed that those nations that emit the most emissions can also contribute to the fund, as is the case with China and India, Bloomberg reports. However, many details remain to be finalized, such as the amount allocated to the fund and how losses and damages will be paid out.
Finally the resolution is approved three decades after Vanuatu demanded an insurance fund for island nations due to sea level rise.
The agreement was reached during last-minute negotiations on how to address the growing death toll from climate change in developing countries that have contributed little or nothing to harmful emissions.
For his part, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, welcomed the approval of this fund as «a political symbol to rebuild lost trust», although he regretted that «this is clearly not going to be enough».
«The voices of those who border the climate crisis must be heard. The United Nations will support these efforts every step of the way,» he said after assessing that this summit was an «important step towards justice».
