Make Polluters Pay

The 60th sessions of the Subsidiary Bodies from 3-13 June 2024, at the World Conference Center Bonn, concluded today with no clarity on a single target for public finance from rich nations or a multi-layered target with a range of goals covering various sources and purposes. The Like-Minded Group of Developing Countries (LMDCs), which includes China, Saudi Arabia and India, retorted that the focus should be exclusively on finance and means of implementation. Small island states and the AILAC coalition of Latin American countries took the middle ground, pushing for discussions on all outcomes with a special focus on finance

The World Bank’s board approved the bank’s role as trustee and host of the secretariat for the new “Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage” for an interim period of four years. This is a procedural step – which had to be taken before a deadline of June 12 – on the road to getting the UN-agreed fund up and running this year. The bank also made clear that it won’t play a role in raising money for the fund or deciding how to spend its so-far meagre resources. Now the next step is to push on with setting up the fund’s secretariat, including appointing an executive director. The World Bank must facilitate the receipt of pledged funds while the fund’s board (which next meets in July) needs to adopt key policy decisions to enable earliest possible disbursement to affected countries.

At COP28, countries – including the host nation UAE – pledged close to $700 million for the new fund, but substantive discussions about how to mobilise the amounts needed to cover fast-rising losses from extreme weather and rising seas have yet to take place.

Climate justice activists lobbied hard for the L&D Fund to receive finance under the new post-2025 goal. But developed countries are pushed back, saying there is no basis for this under the Paris Agreement, which refers to them providing financial resources only for mitigation (measures to reduce emissions) and adaptation to climate impacts. Finance talks in Bonn had “not advanced significantly beyond where they started”

Developed countries believe the mitigation work programme – a track set up at COP26 – is the only other natural forum to wrangle over emission-cutting measures.

The Like Minded Group of Developing Countries (LMDCs) hit back at rich nations accusing them of not doing enough to cut emissions with China and Saudi Arabia “the most vocal” among them.

The writer of this article is Dr. Seema Javed, an environmentalist & a communications professional in the field of climate and energy