More than 200 Filipinos mobilize in front of PICC at Board of Loss and Damage Fund's 1st meeting in Manila

More than 200 Filipinos mobilized in front of Pasay's PICC as the first meeting of the Board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) is underway.

Led by the Asian Peoples' Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), campaigners demanded for developed countries to fill the FRLD as part of their obligation to deliver climate finance, as well as to maintain independence from the World Bank, which serves as the host of the FRLD's secretariat. 

Shortly after the Philippines signed the host country agreement for the board in Baku at COP29 some two weeks ago, Sweden made a $19M pledge.

As of November, the fund has received $731 million in pledges.

According to the Loss and Damage Collaboration, "discussion of loss and damage finance should use US$400 billion per year as a floor and acknowledge that financing needs will have to be revised upward over time."

In a statement, APMDD coordinator Lidy Nacpil said, "While rich, polluting countries shamelessly avoid their obligation to pay up, those who have contributed the least to global warming suffer the most from its effects. People in the Global South are losing their homes, livelihoods, and their very lives." 

“To support the communities most affected by climate disasters, the FRLD must be filled with far, far more than the 731 million USD of current pledges,” she added. 

Civil society organizations are calling for the loss and damage finance to be adequate, predictable, and transparent. "It should be non-debt-creating and delivered free of conditionalities. The World Bank’s promotion of loans with conditionalities has only increased inequality in the Global South," Nacpil added.

The Loss and Damage Fund is unfortunately not included in the $300B under the new climate finance goal made at COP29, but CSOs are more than ready to do its share in ensuring pledges convert to cash.

"The question of disbursement is something the board can look into and ensure the rules or the ways by which access to the fund working alongside the trustee should ensure those who need it will be able to access the fund as soon as they need it. But first we have to ensure those funds which come from pledges that were promised become real funding that is channeled through the FLRD," Atty. Angela Bay of the World Wide Fund said at a post-COP presser in late November.

Meanwhile, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., has already said he wants the Board to be based in the Philippines. 

“We’re working very hard for the board to be based here in Manila because [of] its supreme importance for the Philippines, because of all of the risks that we are bracing [for], because of climate change,” Marcos said as he welcomed members of the Board of the FRLD in a courtesy call in Malacañang on Monday afternoon.

The board is composed of 26 members from COP and Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement, with 12 members from developed countries and 14 from developing countries.

— LA, GMA Integrated News