• FRLD board defers funding decisions till December, receives 176 requests from 119 states• Pakistan submits three proposals on agriculture, health, flash flood losses• Civil society concerned over ‘lack of transparency’, red tape
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and other climate-vulnerable countries will have to wait longer for disbursements from the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) after its board decided to allow more time to assess an overwhelming number of funding proposals amid limited financial resources.
The ninth meeting of the FRLD Board, held in Manila from July 8 to 10, ended without making any significant headway — a development that drew criticism from civil society groups, which said the Fund was failing vulnerable communities increasingly exposed to climate-related disasters.
The Fund was established at COP27 in Egypt in 2022. A decision to operationalise it was taken at COP28 in Dubai, followed by its full operationalisation at COP29 in Azerbaijan. With nearly $500m in its account, the Fund launched its first call for proposals at COP30 in Brazil.
The call resulted in 176 funding requests from 119 developing countries, with a combined funding demand of $2.8 billion — more than 11 times the $250 million allocated for disbursement, according to the Fill the Fund civil society group. The average amount requested per proposal is about $15.9m, ranging from $5m to $20m, according to an FRLD document.
