As Nigeria rails at loss and damage “mirage”, fund boss assures money is coming

After a four-year set up period, a fund to help vulnerable countries respond to climate impacts is facing criticism from Nigeria’s environment minister over delays in delivering aid, while its chief executive says the first disbursements will be made by the end of the year. At an event at London Climate Action Week on Tuesday, Nigerian environment minister Balarabe Abbas Lawal said that whenever he goes to UN climate summits “we talk about loss and damage funds, and all these years nothing has been translated into action”. He added that the fund currently “looks like a mirage”, and said that “a number of our governments are beginning to believe that COPs are just talk shops”. The idea of addressing the loss and damage caused by climate change was first discussed at COP13 in 2007. A fund was agreed to at COP27 in 2022 to help vulnerable countries respond to climate emergencies, and it was officially set up the next year. Since then, the fund’s board and management have been working out the details of how it will work. Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, a banker from Senegal, was appointed CEO in 2024. Referring to Lawal’s frustration, Diong told Climate Home News on Thursday that the fund is “moving according to plan”. Jun 24, 2026 News EU, UK lead push for electrification as “powerful weapon” against fossil fuels A group of dozens of countries seeks to build momentum for a COP31 pledge to electrify 35% of global energy use by 2035 as an alternative to fossil fuels Read more Jun 23, 2026 News UN asks AI companies to reveal full environmental impacts UN chief António Guterres says big AI firms should disclose the emissions, water and energy use of their data centres amid community opposition Read more Jun 24, 2026 Comment Did Colombia’s energy transition just come to a halt? With promises to lift a ban on oil and gas exploration and scale back renewables support, Colombia’s new Tiger President could thr