PACIFIC island countries are seeking funding for cash transfers, relocation and the protection of cultural heritage and biodiversity as they build national systems to respond to climate loss and damage, Mathilde Bord-Laurans, deputy executive director of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage, said.

The fund received 176 proposals through its Barbados Implementation Modality call, including 11 from the Pacific region, Bord-Laurans said. The submissions set out countries’ priorities, and how they want the fund to help strengthen national systems, she said.

“We see a strong call to work on non-economic losses,” Bord-Laurans said, citing cultural heritage, biodiversity and ocean-related matters. The proposals also highlighted cash-transfer mechanisms, protection mechanisms, risk-sharing arrangements and relocation needs.

The fund’s mandate is “people-centred from the outset” and “country-owned” and “country-led,” with simplified access intended to reach the ground and vulnerable communities rapidly, she said.

Speaking at a pre-COP 31 gathering in the Pacific, Bord-Laurans said the region’s experience must shape the fund’s approach.

“The voices and experiences of this region must be heard,” she said, describing the Pacific as being “at the forefront of the impacts of climate change.”

Bord-Laurans said the fund was at the start of its work and should learn from countries and partners already responding to climate impacts. The first proposals offered “a lot of substance” on how the fund should operate both through the current call and over the longer term, she said.

The fund is expected to work alongside risk pools, national banks and agencies, financial partners and civil society, rather than replace them, she said.

“We can only complement the work of these partners using the specificities of our fund,” she said, adding that the fund is grant-funded.

Bord-Laurans said that grant funding should sustain and support national systems, including by backing existing schemes.

She said the fund aims to build long-term partnerships with Pacific island countries and regional institutions in the years ahead.