Loss and Damage Fund for vulnerable countries to be pushed at COP28
As world leaders prepare for the upcoming COP28, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is slated to rally for more support on the Lost and Damage Fun designed to assist countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
The Lost and Damage Fund came to fruition at last year’s COP27 meeting at Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, after three decades of relentless lobbying by developing nations to make rich nations offer funding to countries that are first hit by climate change.
CARICOM is optimistic that COP28 will produce a solid strategy to double adaptation funding. The organization also believes that the fund should be dispersed through grants.
Dominica’s prime minister Roosevelt Skerrit, current chairman of CARICOM, has appealed to Sultan Al Jaber, COP28’s president-designate and put out a list of requests.
“The Caribbean is one of the most vulnerable regions of the world; climate change, for us in the Caribbean, is an existential threat. We are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, suffering from the ravages of climate change that is not our making,” Skerrit said. “As the COP28 President-designate, we in the Caribbean will count on your leadership to ensure that COP28 is a COP of action. COP28 must deliver actions that are commensurate with ensuring that we keep 1.5 alive. Our lives and that of our children and their children depend on it.”
Skerrit also highlighted Dominica’s first hand experience with Hurricane Maria that caused damages equivalent to 226% of the island’s GDP.
“As a result, we have committed in my country to pursue climate resilience across all aspects of our society and economy to avoid such losses in the future and enable more rapid recovery,” he said.
With the help of Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme, Dominica has built climate-resilient infrastructure with MMC Development Ltd. as its main developer.
The United Nations Climate Change conference happening in November until December at Expo City in Dubai, United Arab Emirates will gather leaders in nations and industries to “hold open consultations on thematic areas and sequencing, inviting inputs from the broad mix of stakeholders that will attend the conference.”