Paris:

A crucial meeting on climate “loss and damage” ahead of COP28 ended in failure on Saturday, with countries from the global North and South unable to reach an agreement, according to sources involved in the talks.

The agreement to set up a dedicated fund to help vulnerable countries deal with climate “loss and damage” was a major achievement of last year’s COP27 talks in Egypt.

But countries left the details to be worked out later.

A series of talks held this year have tried to hammer out consensus on basic principles such as structure, beneficiaries and contributors – a key issue for rich countries that want China to pay into the fund.

A transition committee on establishing the fund met late Friday and Saturday in Aswan, southern Egypt.

But according to a webcast of the debate on the UN’s official YouTube channel, delegates were unable to reach an agreement and postponed a decision to another meeting to be held on November 3 to 5 in the United Arab Emirates.

Also read: Climate ‘loss and damage’: securing compensation

Before breaking down, discussions hit a halt over where the money should be kept.

There were differences of opinion over whether it should be managed by the World Bank, which was accused of being in the hands of the West, or a new independent structure demanded by many developing countries, but refilling it with new funds would be time-consuming. Will be more complicated.

Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International, said in a statement to AFP on Saturday that the failure is “a clear sign of the deepening gap between rich and poor countries”.

under the terms of already established international climate agreements, “for their shameless efforts to push developed countries to the World Bank as the host of the fund, their refusal to discuss the required scale of finance, and their blatant disregard for their responsibilities.” must be held accountable”, she said.

Rachel Cletus of the Union of Concerned Scientists said that “today’s disappointing result is a blow to communities… who are facing a sustained onslaught of climate impacts”.

“The United States and other rich countries focus more on avoiding or minimizing their responsibility rather than engaging in good-faith negotiations,” he said.