New Delhi, Oct 22 The UN’s climate loss and damage fund on Thursday decided to “provisionally” set aside USD 20 million for Nepal, which was hit by climate-driven floods in August.
The funding provided by the Board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) for Nepal is expected to cover about 0.7 per cent of the flood loss, which preliminary estimates suggest could be around USD 2.56 billion, according to Climate Trends, a Delhi-based climate research organisation.
Nepal will still need to apply for this funding, and the FRLD will consider the request at its next meeting in December.
Agreed by governments at the annual climate conference in Egypt in 2022, the FRLD addresses the urgent and growing needs of vulnerable communities in developing countries facing the irreversible impacts of climate change.
The board has 26 members from Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the 2015 Paris Agreement.
In a statement, Raju Pandit Chhetri, lead climate finance negotiator for the least-developed countries at the UNFCCC, said, “The FRLD’s approval of USD 20 million for Nepal’s flood response shows that when countries come together, they can reach swift, effective consensus to address the urgent needs of vulnerable countries.”
“While the devastation caused by the floods in Nepal cannot be measured solely in monetary terms, this response shows what effective multilateralism can achieve,” he added.
Harjeet Singh of Satat Sampada Climate Foundation said in a statement that Nepal needed billions of dollars to rebuild, but FRLD had responded only in millions.
“Developed countries bowed to the pressure and backed, setting aside USD 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. That tells its own story. If a disaster of this horror cannot move them, what will?” he added.
(PTI News)
