The Board of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage selected the Philippines as its host country at the Board’s second meeting in Songdo, South Korea, this week.

This is a major milestone, as the Philippines hosting the Board will grant the Board the legal personality needed, for example, to negotiate and enter into a hosting arrangement with the World Bank, which will be the interim trustee of the Fund, operationalize the financial intermediary fund, and host of the Fund’s secretariat.

The Fund, which was operationalized at the COP 28 UN Climate Change Conference last December, was established to help vulnerable countries recover from climate impacts.

The Board expressed its gratitude to the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Bahamas, Barbados, Eswatini, Kenya, Philippines and Togo who submitted proposals to host the Board in response to the Call for Proposals issued in May.