Bengaluru: The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has approved an amount of $21.6 million for Nepal for the losses it sustained due to the Bhote Koshi floods in August. This is the first time that the Fund is allocating climate finance for a sudden-onset climate disaster.The flash floods, triggered by a slope failure in the Langtang Lirung peak in Rasuwa district on the Nepal-China border, killed nearly 1,500 people; more than 5,000 people are still missing.Nepal’s urgent appealFollowing the floods, Nepal had reached out to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD, a multilateral climate finance body established in 2022 at the 27th Conference of Parties under the UNFCCC, and operationalised in 2023 at COP28) in September with an urgent request for immediate financial aid.A report by the World Weather Attribution (a collective of scientists who analyse the role of climate change in extreme weather events) in September had identified climate change as one of the primary factors that contributed to the devastating floods. The report had also stated that executing climate finance commitments was the need of the hour.In response to Nepal’s urgent appeal, the Board for the FRLD met over a virtual “extraordinary meeting” today (October 22). It provisionally approved allocating $21.6 million for Nepal. The amount also includes $1.6 million in Oversight Fees (funds to monitor implementation and other aspects such as risk management).The Board has also agreed to pilot an approach that will allow Nepal to submit this new funding request under the Barbados Implementation Modalities (BIM, which serves as the inaugural start-up phase and operational framework for the FRLD), outside of the submission period for funding requests.The $20 million funding allocation, however, amounts to just 0.7% of the $2.7bn it has estimated in “physical damage” to infrastructure and “economic losses” from the flooding, according to an analysis by Carbon Brief.‘Historic’, ‘landmark’ step, but more to be doneClimate activist Harjeet Singh, Global Convenor of the Fill the Fund campaign and Founding Director, Satat Sampada Climate Foundation, called the move a “historic first step” but added that there is much more to be done.“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,” he said.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, Singh pointed out.“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,” Singh added.Ajay Mathur, who has led climate negotiations for India in the past including at the historic 21st Conference of Parties at Paris and former Director General of the International Solar Alliance, called it a “landmark operational step”.The need for more funds“But the funding is less than 0.5 percent of Nepal’s estimated $5 billion reconstruction costs, and the cash would be released only after Nepal clears further bureaucratic project proposals, risking a delay to vital relief amid an ongoing structural crisis. I would suggest that the FRLD releases support immediately if the bulk of funding is coming from other sources, and with the application of the same rules as the bulk funding,” he said.Savio Carvalho, head of campaigns and networks at 350.org, an international climate action collective, said that the FRLD needs more climate funds, and soon:“Piecemeal contributions to the Loss and Damage Fund results in piecemeal action, and climate vulnerable nations and communities cannot survive on crumbs…The Fund right now can’t adequately support victims and survivors of one of this year’s worst climate disasters, let alone respond to the growing wave of extreme weather still to come. Rich nations can’t show up at COP31 with empty hands: they need to deliver on climate finance.”While the move to allocate these funds for the Nepal flash floods is welcome, a single decision does not amount to a functioning Fund, said Tasneem Essop, Executive Director, CAN International.“The Fund remains underfunded, and risks being unable to respond to the growing loss and damage caused by increasing climate impacts,” she said in a statement. “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.”Currently, developed countries have pledged a total of $822 million to the FRLD. The total contributions so far stand at $629.68 million.But the requests for funds far outweigh the money in hand: Under the first call of the BIM, 119 countries have submitted 176 funding requests totalling approximately $2.8 billion in requested support.