DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The world just took a big step toward compensating countries hit by deadly floods, heat and droughts.

Nearly all nations on Thursday finalised the creation of a fund to help compensate countries struggling to cope with loss and damage caused by climate change, seen as a major first-day breakthrough at this year’s United Nations climate conference (COP28). Some countries started putting in money right away — if little compared to the overall anticipated needs.

Sultan al-Jaber, president of the COP28 climate conference in Dubai, hailed “the first decision to be adopted on day one of any COP” — and said his country, the United Arab Emirates, would chip in US$100 million. Other countries stepped up with big-ticket commitments, including Germany, also at US$100 million.

Al-Jaber said the total was “north of US$420 million” in just the first hour, but work would continue to collect more.

John Kerry, the United States climate envoy, said the US Administration was working with Congress to provide US$17.5 million, adding that US officials “expect this fund to be up and running quickly” and would “draw from a variety of sources”. He also pointed to a number of other US initiatives aimed to fight the fallout from climate change.

Several advocacy groups praised a strong first step, but said they expected more from the rich world in the future.

“The initial monetary pledges announced today are a small, inadequate start,” said Rachel Cleetus, policy director for climate and energy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“Wealthy nations, including the United States, must live up to their responsibility to provide significant contributions to the fund in the years ahead.”

Developing nations have long sought to address the problem of inadequate funding for responding to climate disasters caused by climate change, which hit them especially hard, and for which they have little responsibility. Historically, industrialised countries have spewed out the most carbon emissions that are trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Initial steps toward creating the fund were a major accomplishment at last year’s UN climate conference in Egypt, but it was never finalised. Even after Thursday’s agreement, many details of the “loss and damage fund” were left unresolved, such as how large it would be, who would administer it over the long term, and more.

Still, experts said the show of unity demonstrated how the world could come together in short order to address devastation left behind from natural catastrophes like Tropical Storm Daniel that hammered Libya with massive flooding in September, and Cyclone Freddy that battered several African nations early in the year.

Avinash Persaud, special climate envoy for Barbados who was part of the talks to finalise the fund, praised the “hard-fought historic agreement”, and said it showed a “recognition that climate loss and damage is not a distant risk but part of the lived reality of almost half of the world’s population.”