Three years since the establishment of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh and two years since its operationalization at COP28 in Dubai, 2025 is a crucial year. +The Fund’s Board is set to define the operational modalities of its start-up phase to deliver finance to assist developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change in responding to loss and damage (L&D).
The Board last met for its fifth meeting (B.5) in April 2025, hosted by the government of Barbados, where it adopted a key decision to launch the start-up phase by establishing the “Barbados Implementation Modalities” (BIM). A total of USD 250 million has been allocated for the first set of interventions for the years of 2025 and 2026. The start-up phase may allocate USD 5 to 20 million to activities, projects, or programmes, subject to funding criteria that are expected to be approved by the Board at its sixth meeting (B.6) in July in the Philippines, the host country of the Board.
The BIM will support bottom-up, country-led, and country-owned approaches that promote and strengthen national responses to L&D. This is to be done through the building of national responses and systems that include the engagement of all relevant stakeholders, including people and communities in climate-vulnerable situations.
Financed activities, projects, and programmes will represent the full scope of the Fund, including addressing a variety of challenges associated with the adverse effects of climate change, such as climate-related emergencies, sea level rise, displacement, relocation, migration, insufficient climate information and data, and the need for climate-resilient reconstruction and recovery. It will also provide support for economic and non-economic L&D, as well as funding that is complementary to humanitarian actions after an extreme weather event, funding for recovery, reconstruction, or rehabilitation, and funding to address slow onset events.
The interventions must ensure a balanced geographical representation and contexts, including different types of losses and damages. The Board will develop a resource allocation system that takes into account all the elements included in paragraph 60 of the Governing Instrument, having set a minimum allocation floor of fifty percent for small island developing States (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs). The allocation floor has to consider the limited resources currently available, and safeguard against the over-concentration of support provided by the Fund in any given country, group of countries, or region.
While the initial interventions funded through the BIM will come in the form of grants, countries may use these grants in combination with other financial instruments. Direct access via direct budget support through national governments will be a main access modality, which will allow for the transfer of funds to national governments to finance activities within the scope of the Fund.
Developing countries may decide to implement the activities, projects, or programmes in collaboration with other entities that form part of the funding arrangements.
A call for proposals or funding requests from developing countries will be launched after the sixth meeting of the Board. The Board requested the Secretariat to develop, to be considered and adopted at B.6:
Developing countries will have to designate a national authority or national focal point through which funding requests to the Fund will be submitted.
The Barbados Implementation Modalities, as the start-up phase of the Fund, will serve as the initial period to test and refine the operational approaches that will be developed and implemented in parallel with the FRLD’s longer-term operational policies and procedures. As such, generating lessons learned and evidence to refine the development and implementation of the long-term strategies towards the full operating model of the Fund will be essential.
In that sense, the Board has requested the Secretariat to prepare an analysis of the initial results of the BIM, including key findings, lessons learned, challenges, and recommendations with regards to the Fund’s operational approaches and impact-orientation, including its funding and access modalities, for consideration of the Board by its eleventh meeting in 2026 (B.11), so as to inform the long-term vision of the Fund. Additionally, a monitoring and evaluation strategy will be developed, based on the analysis of the initial results of the BIM, for Board consideration and approval at its thirteenth meeting in 2027 (B.13).
SLYCAN Trust is a non-profit think tank. It has been a registered legal entity in the form of a trust since 2016, and a guarantee limited company since 2019. The entities focus on the thematic areas of climate change, adaptation and resilience, sustainable development, environmental conservation and restoration, social justice, and animal welfare. SLYCAN Trust’s activities include legal and policy research, education and awareness creation, capacity building and training, and implementation of ground level action. SLYCAN Trust aims to facilitate and contribute to multi-stakeholder driven, inclusive and participatory actions for a sustainable and resilient future for all.
Three years since the establishment of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh and two years since its operationalization at COP28 in Dubai, 2025 is a crucial year. +The Fund’s Board is set to define the operational modalities of its start-up phase to deliver finance to assist developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change in responding to loss and damage (L&D).
The Board last met for its fifth meeting (B.5) in April 2025, hosted by the government of Barbados, where it adopted a key decision to launch the start-up phase by establishing the “Barbados Implementation Modalities” (BIM). A total of USD 250 million has been allocated for the first set of interventions for the years of 2025 and 2026. The start-up phase may allocate USD 5 to 20 million to activities, projects, or programmes, subject to funding criteria that are expected to be approved by the Board at its sixth meeting (B.6) in July in the Philippines, the host country of the Board.
The BIM will support bottom-up, country-led, and country-owned approaches that promote and strengthen national responses to L&D. This is to be done through the building of national responses and systems that include the engagement of all relevant stakeholders, including people and communities in climate-vulnerable situations.
Financed activities, projects, and programmes will represent the full scope of the Fund, including addressing a variety of challenges associated with the adverse effects of climate change, such as climate-related emergencies, sea level rise, displacement, relocation, migration, insufficient climate information and data, and the need for climate-resilient reconstruction and recovery. It will also provide support for economic and non-economic L&D, as well as funding that is complementary to humanitarian actions after an extreme weather event, funding for recovery, reconstruction, or rehabilitation, and funding to address slow onset events.
The interventions must ensure a balanced geographical representation and contexts, including different types of losses and damages. The Board will develop a resource allocation system that takes into account all the elements included in paragraph 60 of the Governing Instrument, having set a minimum allocation floor of fifty percent for small island developing States (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs). The allocation floor has to consider the limited resources currently available, and safeguard against the over-concentration of support provided by the Fund in any given country, group of countries, or region.
While the initial interventions funded through the BIM will come in the form of grants, countries may use these grants in combination with other financial instruments. Direct access via direct budget support through national governments will be a main access modality, which will allow for the transfer of funds to national governments to finance activities within the scope of the Fund.
Developing countries may decide to implement the activities, projects, or programmes in collaboration with other entities that form part of the funding arrangements.
A call for proposals or funding requests from developing countries will be launched after the sixth meeting of the Board. The Board requested the Secretariat to develop, to be considered and adopted at B.6:
Developing countries will have to designate a national authority or national focal point through which funding requests to the Fund will be submitted.
The Barbados Implementation Modalities, as the start-up phase of the Fund, will serve as the initial period to test and refine the operational approaches that will be developed and implemented in parallel with the FRLD’s longer-term operational policies and procedures. As such, generating lessons learned and evidence to refine the development and implementation of the long-term strategies towards the full operating model of the Fund will be essential.
In that sense, the Board has requested the Secretariat to prepare an analysis of the initial results of the BIM, including key findings, lessons learned, challenges, and recommendations with regards to the Fund’s operational approaches and impact-orientation, including its funding and access modalities, for consideration of the Board by its eleventh meeting in 2026 (B.11), so as to inform the long-term vision of the Fund. Additionally, a monitoring and evaluation strategy will be developed, based on the analysis of the initial results of the BIM, for Board consideration and approval at its thirteenth meeting in 2027 (B.13).
