Climate change is a global phenomenon. Despite ongoing efforts of Sri Lanka to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen climate resilience, the country continues to face escalating risks of loss and damage resulting from climate-related impacts. Sri Lanka, as a party to the UNFCCC, has signed and ratified the Paris Agreement, reaffirming its commitment to global climate action.
Exposed to economic and non-economic losses and damages due to climate change, their frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as floods, cyclones, droughts, and landslides are increasing. At the same time slow-onset processes including rising temperature, changing rainfall patterns, land degradation, sea-level rise, and biodiversity losses are becoming more pronounced. These climate impacts cause significant damage to infrastructure, agriculture, ecosystems, and public services. They also seviourly undermine food security and livelihoods particularly for farmers, fishers, and other climate-dependent communities. Beyond measurable economic losses, climate change has resulted in serious non-economic impacts. These include loss of lives, displacement of communities, degradation of ecosystems and cultural heritage, and negative effects on health and well-being. Collectively, these challenges pose a major threat to Sri Lanka’s sustainable development and long-term resilience. Therefore, access to global climate finance is critically important to support recovery, restoration, and implementation of preventive actions while ensuring strong environmental and social safeguards.
The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) is a newly established multilateral financial mechanism under the UNFCCC, designed to support countries vulnerable to climate-induced losses and damages. The Barbados Implementation Modality (BIM) open operational window of the Fund. Under this start-up phase, a submission portal for project proposals is open for six months, from 15th December 2025 to 15th June 2026, with funding available in the range of USD 5 million to USD 20 million per request.
Building on lessons learned from past and present climate-related disasters including Cyclone “Ditwah” the Ministry of Environment engaged in developing a proposal to FRLD. The Ministries of defense (DNC) and finance are collaborating in this effort. Apart from that key development partners WFP, FAO and UNDP are providing technical support for the preparation of this proposal.
