In a year marked by yet more climate-linked floods, hurricanes and droughts, governments and companies were forced to look more closely at the financial risks and their exposure to liability.
That kind of slow progress in tackling climate change made vulnerable countries determined to get the so-called Loss and Damage fund approved - after yet another year of extreme weather disasters including record heatwaves from the United States to China, glaciers collapsing in India and Europe, and unending drought pushing millions toward famine in East Africa.
"It's the wild west in terms of what companies should do. And there are some that are greenwashing, yes," said Katharine Hayhoe, a Canadian climatologist and chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy. But some making a sincere effort are "getting pushback from the purity culture, people saying that anything but perfection isn't worth it."
Others sought to take their grievances to court. As of today, there are 2,176 climate-related lawsuits in play across the world, including 654 filed in US courtrooms, according to the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.