Contingency plans to avert climate surprises

We must strengthen community resilience in advance rather than hastily respond to the adverse climate effects.

The growing dissatisfaction over the failure of global efforts to curb carbon emissions against the expectations of climate vulnerable countries was partly addressed on the first day of the recently concluded 28th climate summit, CoP28, with the establishment of a loss and damage fund. The annual summit organised in Dubai, UAE, also made history by recognising the need to transition from fossil fuels, urging governments to increase their clean energy capacities three times by 2030. But it also fell short of what climate scientists, activists and vulnerable countries demanded: A timeline for a fossil fuel phase-out. The thrill waned further within a few days when the number of countries pledging money to the loss and damage fund didn’t grow as expected. The initial pledge of around $700 million made within the first week of the summit is far less than what will be needed annually to finance loss and damage by 2030.