Nepal becomes the first country to be granted money from the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage

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Nepal becomes the first country to be granted money from the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage

22 October 2026

The board of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage has approved 20 million US dollars, about Rs 3 billion, for Nepal. It is the first allocation the fund has made to any country since it was set up under the UN climate process. The money is meant for relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction in the communities along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers that were destroyed by the flood of 26 August. Nepal's Minister for Agriculture, Forests and Environment, Gita Chaudhary, and Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle had written to the fund at the end of August asking for urgent assistance. The board cleared the request at a special meeting. Preliminary government estimates put the directly affected population at more than 60,000 people from about 15,000 households. Around 1,500 people died and more than 5,000 were still missing when the grant was approved.

Amount approved: USD 20 million In Nepali rupees: About Rs 3 billion Rivers affected: Bhotekoshi and Trishuli People directly affected: More than 60,000 Households: About 15,000

Why it matters for exams: Nepal being the first beneficiary of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage is the kind of 'first' that examiners like, and the fund itself belongs to the UNFCCC climate architecture that is asked about every year.

Kerala PSCUPSC

22 October 2026 Source: The Kathmandu Post

In plain words

FRLD Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage — The climate fund created under the UN climate convention to pay for damage poor countries cannot avoid or adapt to.

UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — The 1992 treaty under which the COP meetings and the loss and damage fund sit.