On Sept 2, several board members of the ‘Fund for responding to Loss and Damage’ (FRLD) wrote to the co-chairs and executive director of the Board, requesting to “convene an extraordinary meeting of the Board to consider the Fund’s response to the catastrophic floods in Nepal.”
According to the letter The Plurals accessed, 8 out of the 14 board members from developing countries signed the demand, alongside 6 alternate members. However, none from the developed country blocks—which include 12 board members and another 12 alternate members—signed, showing a fissure within the FRLD board even while responding to one of the severest recent global natural calamities.
According to Nepal government data, the disaster has killed close to 1,300 people so far, while more than 5,000 remain untraced. This was mainly caused by a massive glacial collapse and ice-rock avalanche on Langtang Lirung near the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26, 2026; this is Nepal’s deadliest natural disaster since the 2015 earthquake.
The FRLD, an entity set up under the financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), addresses the needs of vulnerable communities in developing countries facing the irreversible impacts of climate change.
Support Nepal at the earliest
Fourteen key members of the global loss and damage fund wrote to the agency’s co-chairs requesting an extraordinary meeting of the Board to consider the Fund’s response to the catastrophic floods in Nepal.
“ … We write on behalf of the Board and Alternate Members from Africa States, Asia Pacific States and the Least Developed Countries to request that you, acting jointly as Co-Chairs, convene an extraordinary meeting of the Board of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage to consider an urgent and appropriate response to the event that struck Nepal on 26 August 2026,” reads the letter.
“Nepal is a least developed country under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, and this event constitutes precisely the kind of climate-related extreme weather events the Fund was established to address … The scale of loss of life, displacement, and destruction of energy, transport, and economic infrastructure warrants the Board’s urgent consideration of how the Fund’s existing instruments should be mobilized to support Nepal’s government and affected communities,” reads the letter.
“We note the communication from the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Agriculture, Forests and Environment (Dated 31 August 2026) regarding an urgent request for an immediate response by the Board,” reminds the letter.
Nepal’s finance minister Swarnim Wagle and agriculture, forests and environment minister Gita Chaudhary jointly wrote a letter to the FRLD board co-chairs seeking urgent financial support following catastrophic flash floods; emphasising that the unprecedented economic and non-economic losses caused by the August 26 event at the Bhotekoshi River basin floods have gone far beyond Nepal’s national capacity to handle alone.
“Given the magnitude of the event, we urge that this request be acted upon as swiftly as possible so the Board and Fund can provide predictability and support to the government and people of Nepal,” point out the signatories.
Fundingi nstruments available
Addressing the core issue of whether FRLD can provide funds in response to such a disaster, the signatories reminded that the provisions of the governing Instrument point out that the Fund’s support “may include funding that is complementary to humanitarian actions taken immediately after an extreme weather event; funding for immediate or long-term recovery, reconstruction or rehabilitation.”
“Furthermore, Annex II on Funding Arrangements clarifies the relationship between the Fund and the Funding Arrangements and provides additional guidance on how the Fund can complement ongoing efforts to respond to loss and damage,” reads the letter adding further “… We are of the view that the agreed operational parameters of the BIM are sufficient to support the Fund’s rapid response without requiring further Board procedures.
The Barbados Implementation Modalities (BIM) are the initial grant-based pilot phase of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD), designed to provide fast-track financial support to developing countries for climate-induced economic and non-economic losses.
The members pointed out in the letter that “the purpose of the meeting would be for the Board to consider and potentially agree to a provisional set-aside allocation of resources to support rapid response funding for Nepal in accordance with the procedures in Board Decisions”.