Loss and Damage Fund takes historic first emergency step for Nepal, but $20 million “a fraction of the need,” campaigners warn
PRESS RELEASE - Fill the Fund Campaign
For immediate release - 22 October 2026
The Fund for responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) today held the first extraordinary meeting in its history and agreed to set aside around $20 million for Nepal. The Fill the Fund campaign understands the importance of this first step but warns that it falls far short of Nepal’s needs and that the Fund urgently needs a permanent rapid-response system to support the many other countries that will face similar catastrophes.
At its first-ever extraordinary meeting, convened virtually today, the FRLD Board adopted a decision to provisionally set aside approximately $20 million (alongside a $1.6 million oversight fee) in response to the catastrophic Bhote Koshi floods that struck Nepal on 26 August 2026. The Board also agreed to pilot a route allowing Nepal to submit a funding request for this amount.
It is the first time the Fund, established at COP27 in 2022 and made operational at COP28 in 2023 has moved to respond to a specific disaster. Nepal is the first country to formally request its support in an acute emergency.
Campaigners stressed that the breakthrough came only after sustained pressure. Board members representing the Least Developed Countries, African States and Asia-Pacific States formally demanded the extraordinary meeting, backed by letters of solidarity from other constituencies and persistent advocacy from civil society over seven weeks.
A fraction of the need
Nepal’s government estimates the loss and damage from the floods at a minimum of $2.69 billion, with recovery and reconstruction needs of at least $4.71 billion. These estimates only capture the economic toll, not the lives lost, livelihoods destroyed, cultural heritage erased, or the lasting aftermath of displacement, debt and insecurity that forces families into migration and precarious work. Against that, the $20 million set aside amounts to less than half a percent of what Nepal needs to rebuild.
And Nepal is only one country. The overall scale of the need is immense: research estimates that economic loss and damage in developing countries could reach an average of around $400 billion a year by 2030, and far more in the decades that follow. A fund responding to a single disaster in tens of millions is nowhere near that reality.
The Fill the Fund campaign cautioned that “setting aside” funds is not the same as disbursement: the money is earmarked pending Nepal’s formal submission of a funding proposal, which the Board must still approve before any funds are transferred.
A system, not a one-off, other countries will be next
The campaign warned that the way this response was secured is itself the clearest signal of what must change. It took a historic catastrophe, an unprecedented letter from dozens of Board members, and seven weeks of civil society pressure simply to convene the Fund’s first emergency meeting. The next country struck by disaster will not have that time.
The Fill the Fund campaign is therefore urging the Board to institutionalise what Nepal has exposed: a permanent rapid-response modality that can deliver support in days, not months, and a standing ability to convene extraordinary meetings whenever catastrophe demands. Such a system must be available to every vulnerable country not improvised, case by case, each time lives are lost. With climate-driven disasters accelerating across the world’s most exposed regions, from mountain communities to low-lying coasts, the campaign warned that Nepal is not an exception but a preview of what is to come.
Harjeet Singh, Global Convenor, Fill the Fund campaign and Founding Director, Satat Sampada Climate Foundation:
“Today the Loss and Damage Fund took a historic first step by responding to Nepal, but this cannot be a one-off. No country should have to endure a catastrophe and wait seven weeks, through historic letters and relentless pressure, just to unlock the Fund’s first-ever emergency meeting. We must set up a permanent rapid-response system that moves support in days, not months.
“Developed countries bowed to the pressure and backed setting aside $20 million for Nepal. But even as they did, they kept insisting it must not set a precedent and must not prejudge the Fund’s long-term model. They continue to shy away from the hundreds of billions of dollars that vulnerable countries actually need to respond to loss and damage. Nepal needs billions to rebuild, and this Fund is responding only in millions. That gap and the determination of developed countries to keep it that way is the real measure of how far we still have to go.”
Tasneem Essop, Executive Director, CAN International:
“We welcome the FRLD Board’s decision to allocate funds to Nepal as a response to the devastating impacts they lived through in the recent disaster. We are concerned that this response was only made possible through the pressure of civil society and vulnerable nations on the Board. This Fund must be built for speed and scale with a standing rapid-response modality and the resources to match real needs on the ground.
“To be clear, a single decision does not amount to a functioning Fund. The Fund remains underfunded, and risks being unable to respond to the growing loss and damage caused by increasing climate impacts. Developed countries cannot treat their obligations as a matter of goodwill. And even the money already promised is not yet in hand. A large share of the pledges made to this Fund remains unpaid. Pledges on paper cannot rebuild homes or restore lives. Those commitments must be monetised urgently, and the Fund replenished to the scale this crisis demands.”
Liane Schalatek, Associate Director, Heinrich Böll Foundation Washington, DC
“The decision the FRLD Board took today to respond to Nepal’s devastating glacial collapse flood is showing the Fund’s willingness and ability to be flexible and adjust in line with the needs, but it also reveals how much the ambition for the Fund’s to respond rapidly to climate disasters remains hampered by a lack of adequate and predictable financial resources. With only USD 500 million paid in, pledges still unconfirmed and in its current pilot funding phase, the FRLD can respond to Nepal’s request for urgent support with needs in the billions only with a financial set-aside of USD 20 million.
“This is a start, even if an insufficient one, and a statement of solidarity and intent. This must be followed by the quick and full operationalization of both rapid response as well as direct community support modalities to fulfill the full scope of the FRLD mandate. To do this at the scale required, however, the FRLD needs to secure significant new pledges, hopefully as early as at COP31, by developed countries, which as historic emitters retain the moral and financial responsibility to provide more loss and damage support for developing countries in situations like Nepal’s.”
Jocelyn Perry, Senior Advocate and Program Manager of the Climate Displacement Program, Refugees International
“Board members at today's Extraordinary Board Meeting emphasized that the start-up phase of the Fund is an opportunity to test, learn, and adapt. Within that, we must remember the Fund's foundational mandate to deliver community access, though it has not been included as part of the Barbados Implementation Modalities.
“The impacts of the climate emergency in Nepal demonstrate how communities, including already marginalized groups such as migrant workers, are often disproportionately affected by climate impacts and how they are leading the response and recovery in an effective, context-specific way.
“The Fund must create a simplified direct access window for community organizations, providing a dedicated funding stream with small grants accessible to informal groups, unregistered collectives, and community-based organizations. This can enable the rapid, community-driven responses essential for meeting the moment of this crisis and those we know are coming.”
Lien Vandamme, Senior Campaigner, Climate Justice, Accountability & Human Rights at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)
“The Fund’s decision to respond to Nepal’s request for support after the devastating floods that have repeatedly hit the country is a necessary sign of solidarity. But setting aside millions is not the same as delivering billions. What’s clear is that a Fund that is desperately under-resourced will remain toothless in the face of escalating climate disasters. Frontline communities need finance at scale and reparations for the harm they have suffered. This is not charity; it is a matter of legal obligation. As the International Court of Justice made clear, States most responsible for the crisis have the duty to deliver meaningful remedies and reparations for climate harm.
“Those least responsible for this crisis cannot continue to pay its highest price. As governments gather in Antalya for COP31, they must send an unequivocal signal: we are deep into the era of climate disasters, and the response must move beyond messages of solidarity to delivering justice and reparations for those least responsible and hardest hit.
Brandon Wu, Director of Policy & Campaigns, ActionAid USA
“Handcuffed by a lack of resources, today’s extraordinary FRLD Board meeting ultimately did very little for communities in Nepal affected by the devastating floods in August. Three years after being established, the FRLD has yet to send any money to countries hit by climate impacts. Today’s meeting did not change this, nor did it provide a concrete timeline for disbursing money to Nepal.
“The current delays are caused in part by genuine concerns about the fairness and procedural integrity of the FRLD. But these concerns stem primarily from the fact that rich countries have refused to provide money for the FRLD at any kind of reasonable scale. If the Fund were adequately resourced, an immediate disbursement to Nepal would be an absolute no-brainer. But it seems rich countries are terrified that the Fund – which has received a paltry $500 million to date will run dry, thus putting more pressure on them to provide the money they owe.”
Brenda Mwale, Outreach Lead, Loss & Damage Collaboration
“The response to Nepal’s request for emergency support is a welcome step, but falls far short of the scale of the devastation. Our work on Mosaic of Solutions demonstrates that developing countries face 724.43 billion USD in annual loss and damage needs, yet total pledges to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage stand at just 822 million USD.
“Wealthy countries have the resources: by implementing progressive levies like a Climate Damages Tax, developed countries can mobilise 4.8 trillion to 6.6 trillion USD each year in public, non-debt finance while meeting their citizens' needs. The money exists. Wealthy countries must now demonstrate the political will to mobilise it and deliver urgent, adequate and accessible finance to communities bearing the greatest burden of a crisis they did the least to cause.”
Notes to editors
The FRLD held its first extraordinary Board meeting virtually on 22 October 2026. The meeting documents can be found here.
Loss and damage and reconstruction cost estimates are drawn from the Government of Nepal’s Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA), Rasuwa–Bhotekoshi Flood 2026.
A September 2026 synthesis by World Weather Attribution scientists and glaciologists found that human-caused warming, through glacier thinning and permafrost thaw, with the freezing level rising roughly 100 metres per decade was a primary driver of the disaster, which exceeded the limits of adaptation.
The Fund for responding to Loss and Damage was established at COP27 (Sharm el-Sheikh, 2022) and operationalised at COP28 (Dubai, 2023).
The reparations framing is consistent with the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of 23 July 2025, which held that states breaching their climate obligations owe full reparations.
The Fill the Fund campaign is calling on the FRLD Board and governments to: - Establish a permanent rapid-response modality that can deliver support in days, not months, to any country facing a sudden climate catastrophe.
- Monetise outstanding pledges urgently, a large share of the money promised to the Fund has still not been paid in.
- Replenish the Fund at the scale of the crisis matching the hundreds of billions of dollars needed by communities and countries on the front lines of a crisis they did not cause.
Fill The Fund Campaign Hub is convened by Satat Sampada Climate Foundation.
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