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Political and legal implications of defining ‘particularly vulnerable’ for the loss and damage fund

Jackson, Guy LU orcid and Sakshi (2024) In Climate and Development
Abstract

At COP27, Parties agreed to establish a fund for loss and damage. During the COP28 opening plenary, the Loss and Damage Fund was operationalised. Despite this progress, significant questions about access to funding remain unanswered. We engage with a key term in the decision texts–particularly vulnerable. How Parties frame and define the term ‘particularly vulnerable’ will influence funding allocation and devising eligibility or exclusion. We advance arguments against narrow, country-specific definitions of particularly vulnerable. To this end, we outline a brief history of the term particularly vulnerable and present insights from the existing climate fund allocations. We also engage with the emerging science of losses and damages, and... (More)

At COP27, Parties agreed to establish a fund for loss and damage. During the COP28 opening plenary, the Loss and Damage Fund was operationalised. Despite this progress, significant questions about access to funding remain unanswered. We engage with a key term in the decision texts–particularly vulnerable. How Parties frame and define the term ‘particularly vulnerable’ will influence funding allocation and devising eligibility or exclusion. We advance arguments against narrow, country-specific definitions of particularly vulnerable. To this end, we outline a brief history of the term particularly vulnerable and present insights from the existing climate fund allocations. We also engage with the emerging science of losses and damages, and critically unpack the implications of defining particularly vulnerable for loss and damage funding. We argue that it is possible to understand particularly vulnerable in a legally and politically just manner, while highlighting the limitations of excessive reliance or hopefulness around state actions, especially domestic remedies, in addressing vulnerability in specific communities. We recognise that the funds, as they have been pledged now, will not reach all vulnerable people. However, such limitation reinforces our argument that funding and support should be provided wherever vulnerability exists even if it increases liability of states.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
epub
subject
keywords
climate finance, climate law, Loss and damage, particularly vulnerable, UNFCCC
in
Climate and Development
publisher
Taylor & Francis
external identifiers
  • scopus:85198543598
ISSN
1756-5529
DOI
10.1080/17565529.2024.2361121
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
id
77253b4a-67ad-42b1-afc0-ccbf00762dce
date added to LUP
2024-07-24 19:51:21
date last changed
2024-07-25 08:45:13
@article{77253b4a-67ad-42b1-afc0-ccbf00762dce,
  abstract     = {{<p>At COP27, Parties agreed to establish a fund for loss and damage. During the COP28 opening plenary, the Loss and Damage Fund was operationalised. Despite this progress, significant questions about access to funding remain unanswered. We engage with a key term in the decision texts–particularly vulnerable. How Parties frame and define the term ‘particularly vulnerable’ will influence funding allocation and devising eligibility or exclusion. We advance arguments against narrow, country-specific definitions of particularly vulnerable. To this end, we outline a brief history of the term particularly vulnerable and present insights from the existing climate fund allocations. We also engage with the emerging science of losses and damages, and critically unpack the implications of defining particularly vulnerable for loss and damage funding. We argue that it is possible to understand particularly vulnerable in a legally and politically just manner, while highlighting the limitations of excessive reliance or hopefulness around state actions, especially domestic remedies, in addressing vulnerability in specific communities. We recognise that the funds, as they have been pledged now, will not reach all vulnerable people. However, such limitation reinforces our argument that funding and support should be provided wherever vulnerability exists even if it increases liability of states.</p>}},
  author       = {{Jackson, Guy and Sakshi}},
  issn         = {{1756-5529}},
  keywords     = {{climate finance; climate law; Loss and damage; particularly vulnerable; UNFCCC}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{07}},
  publisher    = {{Taylor & Francis}},
  series       = {{Climate and Development}},
  title        = {{Political and legal implications of defining ‘particularly vulnerable’ for the loss and damage fund}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2024.2361121}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/17565529.2024.2361121}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}