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COP28 commenced with the establishment of a loss and damage fund on Nov. 30, the 2-week conference’s first day.

The fund is intended for poor countries dealing with the increasing effects of climate change, such as droughts and rising sea levels. Delegates started pledging contributions from the start of the fund’s announcement. The UAE pledged $100 million, the European Union $245.39 million, while Britain, the US, and Japan promised $51 million, $17.5 million, and $10 million each.

As of Dec. 6, the fund was valued at $700 million, falling short of the estimated annual damage costs of $100bn-$580bn for developing nations. Harjeet Singh, the head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International, has criticized affluent countries and historical polluters such as the U.S. for their meager contributions.

The Global Stockade (GST) is a 5-year checkpoint created in the 2015 Paris agreement, which allows governments to track their progress on climate action in the three areas of mitigation, adaptation and finance; on track with the goal of limiting rising temperatures to 1.5°C, above pre-industrial levels.

The timeline of the GST has included information collection, commencing at COP26 in November 2021, technical assessments from mid-2022 to mid-2023, and the discussion of findings during subsequent negotiations at COP28.

The first GST at COP28 has concluded that the world is not on track to meeting the goal of limiting the rise of global temperatures to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. According to the WWF, in order to stay within target, global emissions would need to be cut by 42% below 2010 levels by 2030, while current nationally determined contributions (NDCs) would only lead to a 14% reduction.

The COP28 conference was pushed into overtime on its final day, closing 23 hours later than planned as participants disputed over how quickly fossil fuel production should be stopped.

In a historic landmark, COP28’s Global Stockade agreement was the first to openly call for the reduction of all fossil fuel use. However, the agreement remains controversial due to its omission of a full phase-out of fossil fuels.

According to analysis by the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network (PICAN), over 127 countries supported the phasing out of fossil fuels at COP28, compared to just 80 at last year’s COP27.