SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt: For the first time, the nations of the world decided to help pay for the damage that climate change has done to poor countries, but they finished marathon climate talks on Sunday with a deal does not further address the root cause of global warming — the burning of fossil fuels.

The decision, which focuses on the impacts of climate change, establishes a fund for what negotiators call loss and damage. It is a big win for poorer nations which have long called for cash — sometimes viewed as reparations — because they are often the victims of climate worsened floods, droughts, heat waves, famines and storms despite having contributed little to the pollution that heats up the globe.