Developing nations asked to seek grants from Loss and Damage Fund; Philippines on board

November 13, 2025 | 4:34pm

MANILA, Philippines — As countries convene in Brazil for COP30, developing nations may now apply for financial support from the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD), where the Philippines serves as a board member.

The fund has opened its first call for requests to help implement planned interventions for climate-vulnerable countries during the 20th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30).

In a statement Thursday, November 13, the FRLD said its start-up phase — the Barbados Implementation Modalities (BIM) — is now accepting applications to support developing nations in addressing losses and damages caused by climate change.

With an initial pool of $250 million (~P14.8 billion), the fund is set to back climate and disaster response programs from 2025 to 2026, targeting nations most vulnerable to climate-induced damage.

“The Board has allocated $250 million in initial grants for the BIM. Developing countries are invited to submit funding requests aligned with their priorities,” FRLD Co-Chair Jean-Christophe Donnellier said. 

The BIM was established to provide grants ranging from $5 million to $20 million to vulnerable nations, particularly in the Global South, where extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, rising sea levels and temperatures have caused severe casualties and economic losses.

The FRLD said the start-up funding follows a bottom-up, country-led approach, allowing nations to design their own responses to climate loss and damage. The goal, it added, is to ensure that interventions reflect each country’s social, economic, and cultural realities instead of being dictated by external groups.

For the long-term. Since the BIM is still a start-up, Donnellier said the first proposals would serve as a test to help shape the fund's long-term model. 

"Innovation is key: for example, the FRLD will leverage entities already accredited by other funds, avoiding duplicate processes and accelerating FRLD operational readiness while promoting coordination and coherence," she added. 

COP30 has provided the FRLD a platform to promote the BIM, which allows partners, crucial stakeholders and organizations to come up with a plan as to how often money can be requested and what criteria countries will need to meet to apply for funding.

Countries can submit their applications starting December 15. It will run for six months. 

The loss and damage fund was first agreed upon in 2023 during COP27 and established in 2024, with 2025 marking the first call for funding requests, which the board calls a "testament to the global solidarity" in support of combating the effects of climate change. 

“This call, while significant, reminds us of the need for significantly more resources to meet the vast scale of need on the ground. As we operationalize the BIM, we will also be working to mobilize additional resources to support our long-term ambitions," FRLD Executive Director Ibrahima Cheikh Diong said. 

Negotiations. COP30 is currently underway in Belém, Brazil, from November 10 to 21, with more than 190 countries holding weeks of talks and negotiations on how to curb global warming. The annual summit stems from a treaty that led to the Paris Agreement, where nations pledged to keep temperature rise below 2°C above pre-industrial levels — and ideally within 1.5°C.

The United Nations has since warned that the 1.5°C target is slipping out of reach as countries fall behind on climate action.

At last year’s COP29 in Azerbaijan, nations agreed to raise USD 300 billion in annual climate financing by 2035, with a long-term goal of mobilizing USD 1.3 trillion.