On January 20, 2026, SLYCAN Trust held a High-Level Forum on Climate Finance and Climate-Related Extreme Events in Colombo, Sri Lanka. This event was part of the organization’s ongoing work in climate and disaster risk finance, loss and damage, and fostering multi-actor partnerships. The forum brought together government representatives, international climate finance institutions, UNFCCC-linked mechanisms, development partners, and technical experts.
Sri Lanka has been increasingly vulnerable to climate-related extreme events, with Cyclone Ditwah in late 2025 serving as a recent example. In this context, the forum focused on enhancing Sri Lanka’s access to climate finance for response, recovery, and long-term resilience. Special emphasis was placed on finance for loss and damage and climate disaster risk financing.
Dennis Mombauer, Director of Research & Knowledge Management at SLYCAN Trust, opened the forum by highlighting its timeliness and significance, particularly in light of Cyclone Ditwah’s substantial economic and non-economic impacts on Sri Lanka. He emphasized the urgent need to build long-term resilience and address loss and damage.
“With the impacts of climate change on the rise, building long-term resilience and responding to loss and damage are urgent challenges. This forum convenes key actors to identify pathways for accessing finance and managing climate risks, especially in the context of the operationalization of the global institutional landscape on loss and damage,” Mombauer stated.
Mathilde Laurans, Deputy Executive Director of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD), delivered the keynote address virtually. She announced that the Fund officially opened its first call for funding requests on December 15, 2025, marking the beginning of its operational phase under the Barbados Implementation Modalities (BIM). This initial funding window extends to June 15, 2026.
“This milestone means that countries like Sri Lanka can now engage with us for support,” Laurans said, emphasizing that the Fund is designed with people at its core and addresses both economic and non-economic loss and damage.
K.K.A. Chamani Kumarasinghe, Additional Director at the Climate Change Secretariat of the Ministry of Environment of Sri Lanka, spoke on the extensive damage caused by Cyclone Ditwah to human life and infrastructure and the urgent need to enhance response and recovery systems.
“Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Environment strongly appreciates the initiative by SLYCAN Trust at this moment to focus this forum on climate finance for loss and damage. We commend SLYCAN Trust for its continuous support and initiatives in creating platforms that connect global processes with national realities and priorities,” she said.
The forum featured two panel discussions with representatives from international climate finance institutions, technical experts, and practitioners. The first panel included Angela Rivera, Co-Chair of the Santiago Network Advisory Board; Thibyan Ibrahim, Advisor to the Board Members of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage and Green Climate Fund; Amjad Abdullah, Board Member of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and Member of the UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance; and Mohammed Hafijul Islam Khan, Co-Chair of the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism.
This panel emphasized the urgent need for developing nations to enhance access to climate finance for loss and damage by overcoming institutional, technical, and procedural barriers. They highlighted the importance of robust national needs assessments that capture both economic and non-economic losses and stressed the necessity of simplifying access, strengthening institutional readiness, and improving coordination across national systems.
The second panel featured Dr. Maheshwar Dhakal, Board Member of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage; Aileen Niyaz, Technical Expert at SLYCAN Trust; Kay Tuschen, Head of Climate Resilience Solutions at CelsiusPro Group; and Angela Rivera. This discussion focused on practical approaches and emerging best practices for accessing climate and disaster risk finance to support disaster response and long-term resilience. The panelists discussed enabling conditions for effective access to finance, including public-private partnerships, national preparedness, and institutional coordination.
Both panel discussions were moderated by Dennis Mombauer. The latter half of the forum concentrated on aligning global discussions with Sri Lanka’s national context and identifying practical priorities for enhancing climate resilience. Participants reflected on the effectiveness of existing institutional arrangements and response plans during recent extreme events and discussed lessons to inform future preparedness. Expert inputs on climate and disaster risk finance were provided, focusing on improving local-level access and strengthening national readiness.
The forum concluded with an interactive World Café session, where participants identified key gaps, capacity needs, priority partnerships, and actions to boost Sri Lanka’s preparedness and climate finance readiness. The session was followed by closing reflections from SLYCAN Trust’s Executive Director, Vositha Wijenayake.
The forum established key priorities for strengthening Sri Lanka’s readiness to access climate finance, including addressing institutional and capacity gaps at the local level, enhancing coordination across actors, and clarifying practical pathways for engaging international mechanisms for loss and damage and disaster risk finance. These outcomes are expected to inform ongoing national recovery efforts, resilience planning, and Sri Lanka’s engagement with international climate finance processes as the country continues to face increasing climate-related risks.
