COP28 opens with 'historic' launch of loss and damage fund

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00:00 Now to Valerie de Kemp, France 24 environmental reporter. She's covering the summit for us in Dubai.

00:06 Valerie, good to see you again.

00:09 Tell us, give us a briefing on what's happened so far since the summit has opened.

00:15 Well, COP28 president Al Jaber, he just gave a relatively brief press conference in which he appeared quite

00:27 optimistic and confident about the possible outcomes of COP28.

00:31 He said, I am more confident than ever that we will deliver an unprecedented result.

00:37 He said he was laser focused on delivering maximum ambition.

00:42 And he did mention one of the key issues of this COP as well is what we call the

00:47 implementation gap. The fact that so many countries over the past few years have come forward with

00:53 promises with climate policies, but now it's really about how do we implement those policies.

00:59 And that is something that will be again at the heart of this COP with the implementation gap.

01:04 And one way of trying to address that issue is what we call the global stocktake.

01:09 So it is a process that will end, a two-year process that will end here at COP28.

01:15 Essentially, the first review of how far the world has come in terms of

01:22 battling climate change and what else needs to be done in the years coming forward in order to really

01:27 address and meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.

01:33 And so this is happening eight years after the Paris Agreement was signed back in 2015.

01:39 And it is a bit of an important milestone and moment because we have another seven years left

01:45 before we really need to turn things around and

01:48 reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% before 2030.

01:52 So that is why it's become a bit of a pivotal moment here at COP28.

01:57 So he gave that press conference just now.

02:01 Earlier today, the COP28 presidency was officially passed on to al-Jabbar from his predecessor,

02:09 Egypt's Sami Shoukry, officially opening the COP28 conference.

02:15 And one of the key issues, key themes that we're going to hear a lot of debate on is fossil fuels.

02:22 How quickly will countries ditch their addiction to oil, gas and coal?

02:27 And are they willing to really make an agreement on the phasing out of fossil fuels?

02:33 So that is essentially what's happened so far today.

02:37 But again, another major announcement on loss and damage, Charlie.

02:43 So a surprise announcement, really, because no one was really expecting this to happen on day one.

02:48 So it was gaveled through just a few hours ago.

02:52 And just to give you a bit of context, this loss and damage fund,

02:56 essentially a fund meant to help developing nations, poorer countries,

03:00 restore from climate events, climate disasters.

03:06 And to give you a bit of context, it was actually agreed back in COP27,

03:11 the creation of the loss and damage fund.

03:14 And in the lead up to COP28, diplomats agreed on a pre-draft of what this

03:21 deal could actually mean and the details of what exactly this fund would entail.

03:29 So who would actually contribute, who can actually access funding from this fund,

03:35 and just operational details as well as the governing body of this loss and damage fund.

03:41 So this has really come as a major surprise,

03:44 major satisfaction for developing nations that have been fighting for this for decades.

03:50 And the fact that it was gaveled through just on day one is really quite rare,

03:54 as usually this tends to happen once leaders have actually arrived at the COP summit.

04:01 So again, climate leaders very much pleased about this announcement.

04:06 Valerie DeKemp, thank you for your reporting and keeping us updated throughout the day.

04:11 Talk to you soon.

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