THE 28th United Nations climate change conference (COP28) in Dubai had got off to a good start on its first day, with the go-ahead given for a loss-and-damage fund – a finance facility developing countries have spent decades fighting for.

COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber, at his first press conference, expressed confidence that the progress made at this COP would be “unprecedented”.

But as the event wrapped up on Tuesday (Dec 12), that early glow of success had faded, only to be replaced with criticisms over the draft of the Global Stocktake report released the day before.