Global Climate Talks Begin With Surprise Breakthrough on Damage Reparations

In an auspicious start for the two-week climate summit known as COP28, delegates agreed on the details of a fund to compensate developing countries for damages caused by warming temperatures.

The loss and damage fund, which was first created at last year's COP27 summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, has now been "operationalized," and some countries have already agreed to start paying into it. A draft agreement was circulated earlier in November, though some controversy surrounded its details, like the designation of the World Bank as the home for the fund.

"Right at the start of the UN climate talks, developing and developed nations joined hands to set the loss and damage fund in motion," said Ani Dasgupta, the president and CEO of the non-profit World Resources Institute, in a statement. "The loss and damage fund will be a lifeline to people in their darkest hour, enabling families to rebuild their homes after disaster strikes, support farmers when their crops are wiped out and relocate those that become permanently displaced by rising seas."