At COP28 in Dubai, in November and December of 2023, Loss and Damage was one of the key issues being discussed with the historic adoption of the decision to operationalise the Loss and Damage Fund (LDF) taking place in the opening plenary on the first day. The negotiations on the Santiago Network for Loss and Damage (SNLD) then became the key focus of Loss and Damage negotiations as Parties worked to select the host of the SNLD secretariat, elect the members of the SNLD’s Advisory Board and agree to any other matters needed to enable the Santiago Network to begin catalysing the delivery of technical assistance to developing countries, as soon as possible.
This brief first analyses the decisions taken in Dubai —and where necessary those taken at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh— which included not only the decision on the SNLD but also related decisions on the LDF, the first Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement, and the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage. The briefing then turns to outlining the fundamental role of the SNLD’s Advisory Board, before unpacking its first meeting —which took place from the 18th to the 20th of March 2024, in Geneva, Switzerland. The brief concludes with a timeline of work for the year ahead that would ensure a fully operational Santiago Network by the time Parties arrive in Baku, Azerbaijan for COP 29 in November 2024.
Funded by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung New York Office with support from the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
