COP28 left two uncomfortable realities to fester. First, no matter how aggressively nations act now to reduce emissions — and they must — carbon dioxide levels already accumulated in the atmosphere mean global warming is “in the pipeline”, virtually ensuring increasing numbers of weather-related disasters and greater climate-induced disruption.
Second, the world’s most vulnerable people are not financially ready for what’s ahead, COP28’s Loss and Damage Fund notwithstanding. After all, at COP27, the finance ministers from 58 climate-vulnerable economies estimated 98% of their nearly 1.5 billion citizens lacked financial protection.
