The launch of a climate "loss and damage" fund yesterday drew praise and hundreds of millions of dollars in pledges at the UN's COP28 talks but also warnings that much more is needed to help vulnerable nations.

"We have delivered history today," the UAE's COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber told delegates who stood and applauded after the decision's adoption in Dubai.

The announcement was followed immediately by financial pledges, including 225 million euros ($246 million) from the European Union, $100 million from the United Arab Emirates, $40 million from Britain, $17.5 million from the United States and $10 million from Japan.

But the money pledged so far fall well short of the $100 billion that developing nations -- which have historically been least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions -- have said are needed to cover losses from natural disasters.

Rachel Cleetus, policy director of the climate and energy programme at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the financial commitments should be "in the billions, not millions".

"Millions would be an insult given what's happening already around the world," Cleetus told reporters.

The fund will be housed in the World Bank for four years, a decision that developing nations begrudgingly accepted as the Washington-based institution is dominated by Western powers.