Short on time, the Maldives waves aside 'loss and damage' funding

When the “loss and damage” fund was agreed on at the 27th United Nations climate summit in November, it was a historic step, welcomed by climate-vulnerable countries as well as world leaders. At the time, Achim Steiner, administrator of the U.N. Development Programme, called it “long overdue” in a statement, noting that “this represents a significant step forward in the global fight against the climate emergency.”

While the fund is “welcome,” the climate leader of one vulnerable state has spoken out about the need for “greater and more urgent” adaptation and mitigation finance so loss and damage funding — a form of climate reparations — won’t be so necessary.

“Let's not wait until we've got to the stage of loss and damage before we start funding for adaptation properly, because once we've got to that stage, we can't get it back,” Sabra Ibrahim Noordeen, the special envoy for climate change at the President's Office of the Maldives, told Devex.