Rich countries agree to pay for climate losses
After 30 years of deadlock, historic climate agreement reached
Negotiators from nearly 200 countries agreed for the first time to establish a fund that would help poor, vulnerable countries cope with climate disasters made worse by the pollution spewed by wealthy nations that is dangerously heating the planet.
The decision regarding payments for climate damage marked a breakthrough on one of the most contentious issues at United Nations climate negotiations.
For more than three decades, developing nations have pressed for loss and damage money, asking rich, industrialised countries to provide compensation for the costs of destructive storms, heat waves and droughts fuelled by global warming.
But the United States and other wealthy countries had long blocked the idea, for fear that they could be held legally liable for the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change.
The agreement hammered out in the Red Sea resort town says nations cannot be held legally liable for payments.
The deal calls for a committee with representatives from 24 countries to work over the next year to figure out exactly what form the fund should take, which countries should contribute and where the money should go.
Many of the other details are still to be determined.
The creation of a loss and damage fund was almost derailed by disputes that ran into the early hours over other elements of a broader agreement, including how deeply countries should cut their emissions and whether to include language that explicitly called for a phaseout of fossil fuels, including coal, natural gas and oil.