KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator Matthew Samuda, has welcomed the decision by Denmark to offer ‘loss and damage’ funding to poorer countries for climate breakdown.

Denmark made the announcement at the United Nations this week, ahead of planned protests as poor nations call for greater collective commitment.

According the The Guardian newspaper, youth groups in Africa are preparing to embark on a series of climate demonstrations on Friday to highlight the problem of “loss and damage” to poor countries blighted by climate breakdown, as only one rich country has so far stepped up with funding for the problem.

Actions will take place on Friday in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Togo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with more to follow in some other African nations over the weekend.

Denmark became the first central government of a developed country to propose funding devoted to “loss and damage” – which refers to those ravages of climate-related disasters which are so extreme that no protection against them is possible.

At the UN general assembly, for which world leaders have converged in New York this week, the Danish government announced to philanthropists and poor countries that it would provide DKK 100m (£12m) specifically for loss and damage.

Scotland has also offered funds for loss and damage, pledging £2m at the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow last November, and the government of the Belgian region of Wallonia pledged €1m (£0.9m) towards administration. But, Denmark is the first central or federal government to make a dedicated pledge.

The sums are tiny compared with the tens or hundreds of billions of dollars of losses that countries are expected to experience, but the symbolism is important. At Cop26, governments agreed to forge a framework to address loss and damage, but there was no agreement on a funding mechanism.

There are still question marks over how the Danish finance would work, and some campaigners and experts are concerned that some of it appears earmarked for insurance schemes rather than representing direct aid.

Despite this, Senator Samuda said: “Jamaica is happy to see a developed nation stepping up to the plate and acknowledging the absolute need for loss and damage to be acknowledged. It is our hope that this will pave the way for commitments from other developed nations. Though $13 million will not cover the vast devastation we are already experiencing from climatic events, I wish to thank Denmark for getting the ball rolling.”

No other developed countries have indicated they are likely to follow the Danish lead. G7 governments may be more inclined to provide finance to the “global shield” initiative backed by Germany, as president of the G7 this year.

The global shield is intended to provide funds for poor countries to gain resilience against the damages of extreme weather, for instance through providing the finance needed for developing countries to fulfil their “preparedness plans”, and could also involve a system of insurance against climate-related disasters.