Parallel Session 8: Addressing loss and damage in the mountains

Rising global temperatures are driving severe climate impacts, including record-breaking floods, wildfires, droughts and thawing permafrost. These events have caused significant Loss and Damage (L&D) in vulnerable economies which are struggling to cope. Conservative projections estimate that climate-induced economic losses in developing countries will reach USD 290–580 billion annually by 2030, escalating to USD 1-1.7 trillion by 2050 (UNFCCC, 2023).

After a decade-long negotiation led by developing countries, the Loss and Damage Fund (FRLD) was finally established at COP27 and operationalized at COP29. Its Governing Instrument incorporates key principles such as rapid disbursement, direct access and direct budget support, small grants for communities, and debt-sensitive financing instruments. The FRLD aims to mobilize predictable and adequate finance for economic and non-economic L&D, covering recovery, rehabilitation, and reconstruction from extreme and slow-onset climate events. As of January 2025, USD 745 million has been pledged to the Fund while developing countries have called for at least USD 100 billion annually by 2030.

Since 2024, the FRLD Board has been developing institutional structures and operational modalities for the Fund. Key milestones include signing an interim Secretariat hosting agreement and trustee agreement with the World Bank. The Board aims to finalize the operational procedures of the Fund in 2025, including those ensuring simplified access and country-driven response.

Countries like Nepal are already facing severe climate-induced L&D from extreme weather events such as floods, landslides, glacier lake outburst floods (GLOF), fires, heatwaves and slow-onset events such as increasing temperature, glacier melting, and biodiversity loss. Given Nepal’s negligible emissions, securing L&D finance without exacerbating debt is a matter of climate justice. Due to capacity constraints, rapid, simplified and direct access to L&D funds is also key to ensuring that vulnerable communities receive timely support. Nepal also requires readiness support for enhanced data collection, meeting access criteria, establish early warning systems, and advanced technologies for early anticipatory actions.

Nepal has integrated L&D into its third NDC and aims to strengthen research, data collection, institutional capacity, and policies to comprehensively address economic and non-economic L&D focusing on the most vulnerable communities living in remote areas in the mountains. 

Objectives:

  1. Bring together local, national, regional, and international perspectives to examine the global landscape of L&D, including relevant financing mechanisms.
  2. Evaluate national policies and frameworks; and national and local experiences with both economic and non-economic losses.
  3. Enhance coordination at the global, regional and national levels.
  4. Identify gaps and challenges in response to climate change-induced L&D and propose the way forward for mountain countries like Nepal.

Moderator

DR. ARJUN KUMAR KARKI

Executive President of Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN), Former Ambassador of Nepal to USA

Dr. Arjun Kumar Karki is the Executive President of Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN). He has also served as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Government of Nepal to the United States of America, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Guyana. Dr. Karki is the Global Coordinator of LDC Watch, Regional Coordinator of South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE) and the President of Vidushi Yogmaya Himalayan Ayurveda University. He is also a political analyst and researcher, as well as a governance and organisational development expert.

Dr. Karki has more than 30 years of experience in non-governmental organisations, international relations, diplomacy, climate change politics and diplomacy, international negotiations, peacebuilding, and development cooperation at the local, national, regional, and global levels. He holds a PhD in Development Studies from the United Kingdom, specialising in the Politics of Poverty.

Keynote Speaker

MR. IBRAHIMA CHEIKH DIONG

Executive Director of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage

Ibrahima Cheikh Diong has over 30 years of professional leadership and management experience in Africa, USA, Europe and Asia. As UN-Assistant Secretary General and Director General of the African Union specialized agency, the African Risk Capacity (ARC) Group, he leads the strategic vision of the institution. Ibrahima previously served as Founder and Chairman of ACT Afrique Group; Senior Africa Banker at BNP Paribas; Minister and Special Adviser to the President of the Republic of Senegal; Director General of Int’l Cooperation of Senegal; Permanent Secretary of Energy of Senegal, Manager at IFC Africa Department; Regional Coordinator for Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility at the World Bank; and Africa Director for Booz, Allen & Hamilton. He has a master’s degree in Int’l Affairs, specializing in Int’l Finance and Environmental Policy from Columbia University (SIPA). A Senegalese national, Ibrahima is fluent in English, French, Mandarin Chinese, and Wolof.

Panelists

Dr. Arun Bhakta Shrestha

Senior Advisor, Climate and Environmental Risk, ICIMOD, Nepal

Dr. Arun Bhakta Shrestha is the Senior Advisor for Reducing Climate and Environmental Risks at ICIMOD. Until January 2025, he led the Strategic Group on Reducing Climate and Environmental Risks at ICIMOD. Recognised for his pioneering work on climate change in Nepal, Dr. Shrestha has made significant contributions to diverse areas related to climate, cryosphere, water and s in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region.

He holds a PhD in Earth Sciences from the University of New Hampshire, USA. His research spans Nepal and the broader Hindu Kush Himalaya region, combining extensive field experience. As the Disaster Task Force lead at ICIMOD, Dr. Shrestha has provided strategic leadership and technical inputs in assessing major disaster events in the region, including those in Seti, Chamoli, Melamchi, and Thame. He was also instrumental in developing a multi-hazard risk assessment framework and guidelines for climate-resilient hydropower.

Dr. Shrestha is actively involved in science-policy engagements and regional water cooperation. He played a pivotal role in the successful GLOF (Glacial Lake Outburst Flood) risk mitigation at Tsho Rolpa Glacial Lake, marking a first for the southern Himalayas. In addition, Dr. Shrestha is an editor of the Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment and serves as the Coordinating Lead Author for its Climate Change chapter.

Dr. Anil Kumar Gupta

Integrated Centre for Adaptation to Climate Change, Disaster - Resilience and Sustainability (ICARS), Department of Science & Technology, India

Dr. Anil Kumar Gupta is the Head of the Division of Environment, Climate & Disaster Risk Management of the National Institute of Disaster Management of India.  He has been in the roles of policy-planning & capacity building advisor in disaster management, climate change, environment, health, cities, industrial-chemical safety, circular economy & sustainability issues. 

In previous roles, he was Head of Division of Policy Planning and Head of Training Services of NIDM. He served as Director of Bundelkhand University Institute of Environment & Development Studies in Govt. of UP, India. He was also Elected Fellow of Society of Earth Scientists (FSES) and Elected Fellow of International Society for Environmental Botany (FISEB).

Mr. Rajesh Sharma

Programme Specialist (Global) - Crisis Bureau, UNDP, Thailand

Rajesh Shrama has extensive experience of conceptualizing, designing, planning and implementing regional and national programmes on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in the Asia-Pacific region. He has more than 25 years of professional experience of providing technical and advisory services to countries to develop, design, plan and implement disaster risk reduction strategies, policies and programmes aimed at reducing losses and damages from disasters and climate change. He has led, designed and implemented programmes on emerging issues on DRR and CCA; has demonstrated experience of developing, managing and conducting training programmes on substantive issues; and has engaged with a wide range of international, regional and national stakeholders in conceptualizing and designing effective programmes to reduce disaster and climate risks and to build resilience of communities. He has also worked on urban development, environmental management, ICTs for disaster risk reduction, emergency telecommunication, internet governance, and housing for the poor.

Ms. Maureen Santos

Coordinator of the Socio-Environmental Justice Program at the Heinrich Böll Foundation Brazil

Maureen Santos, political scientist and ecologist. She is coordinator of Policies and Alternatives Unit of the Federation of Organisations for Social and Educational Assistance (FASE), is a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and coordinator of Socio-Environmental Platform at BRICS Policy Center, a Brazilia think tank. She is a former programme coordinator in the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s Rio de Janeiro office.