When Nepal invoked the emergency procedures of the world's fund for climate disaster support for the first time in history, it did so with a request for $4-5 billion. The fund can offer $20 million. This stark arithmetic, confirmed by finance minister Swarnim Wagle's preliminary estimates, reveals the fundamental inadequacy of the international community's response to the climate crisis it has largely caused.
The Himalayan nation turned to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) after flash floods, triggered by a glacial lake collapse, killed more than 1,300 people in late August. Thousands remain missing. The rebuilding cost, roughly 10 per cent of Nepal's annual GDP, is a burden the country cannot bear alone. Yet the global mechanism designed for precisely this scenario holds less than one per cent of what is needed.
How does the loss and damage fund work?
The FRLD was established by the UN in 2023 after years of pressure from developing countries for a dedicated pot of money to address climate disasters they did not cause. Under normal rules, requests take six to eight months to process, and the board was not scheduled to meet until December. The emergency provisions, which Nepal has now triggered, are meant to compress that timeline to six to eight weeks.
Eight board members from developing nations called for an emergency meeting after Nepal's finance and environment ministries formally wrote to the co-chairs. Richard Sherman, a South African climate negotiator and board member, told The Independent that the board hopes to provisionally allocate money to Nepal.
