Philippines urges countries to help sustain Loss and Damage Fund

The Philippines has asked countries to help sustain the fund aimed at providing assistance to nations that are most at risk from the effects of climate change, warning that the price of inaction is "far too high."

At the sixth meeting of the Board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, on Wednesday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said through Environment Secretary Raphael Lotilla that the initial allocation of $250 million for 2025–2026 was a “crucial step forward,” but the fund must also be “fair, future-ready, and responsive to those who need help.”

‘’What’s at stake here demands urgency and action. Let us not lose sight of what led us to fight for the establishment of the fund. When it comes to addressing loss and damage, business as usual is not an option. Every delay means more families without shelter, more livelihoods disrupted, and, worse, more lives lost. The cost of inaction is far too high,’’ Marcos said.

The President said the fund must be "swift, accessible, and human-centered, attuned to the needs of vulnerable countries and communities."

‘’We also call on the international community to stand with us, to help sustain this fund, and to fulfill its promises. The collective will of nations must rise higher than the seas, burn brighter than a warming world, and move faster than the storms that endanger us,’’ he said.

The Philippines hosts the board of the FRLD, which was operationalized at the 28th Conference of Parties (COP) in December 2023. It signed the agreement to host the board at COP 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan last year.

As of June 27, wealthy nations had forwarded $348 million out of the total pledges worth around $789 million, according to the World Bank, the fund’s interim trustee.

Australia, Canada, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United States are among the nations that have contributed to the fund.

For environmental group Greenpeace, the so-called "climate polluters" should bear the responsibility for loss and damage.

In a statement, Greenpeace Philippines said Marcos should demand payment for climate loss and damage from fossil fuel companies and rich nations, call for an end to oil and gas expansion and for a fossil fuel phaseout, expedite the passage of the Climate Accountability Bill, and begin the process of litigating the world’s biggest oil and gas companies for climate impact damages to the Filipino people.

“Those most responsible for the climate and environmental emergency must be held accountable by paying their fair share. And the Philippines can lead the way in making this happen,’’ said Greenpeace Philippines campaigner Jefferson Chua.

Meanwhile, Aksyon Klima Philippines National Coordinator John Leo Algo said in a statement that the "USD250 million is simply not enough."

"The Fund is intended to be an implementing entity, not a negotiating space, that would fill in the gaps under the global climate finance landscape," he said. 

"What is lost in all the debates on the details by the Board is the elephant in the room that developed countries do not want us to notice – it is not exactly about the lack of capacity to manage proposals, but the lack of actual money committed by developed countries," he added.

The Philippines is among the least emitters of greenhouse gases that cause global warming, yet it is directly hit by the effects of climate change, such as droughts and escalating tropical cyclones. In 2024 alone, six back-to-back typhoons battered the Philippines, with four of them simultaneously thrashing the country.

According to Germanwatch's Climate Risk Index 2025 released in February 2025, the Philippines stood as the 10th country most affected by extreme weather events in the last 30 years.    

The Philippines is among the nearly 200 countries that signed the a landmark deal in Paris in December 2015 to cut greenhouse gas emissions to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C and well below 2Celsius. 

‘’Year after year we endure the harshest blows of the climate crisis, from typhoons that destroyed towns to rising seas that threatened our coastal communities,’’ Marcos said.

‘’Other vulnerable nations share this struggle, this burden, and this collective call for climate justice. It is for them and with them that this fund was created.’’ —GMA Integrated News