Understanding Loss And Damage In Climate Change Negotiations

Loss and damage refers to the adverse effects of climate change. Different groups interpret it in various ways, and there’s no universally accepted definition within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). To put it simply, we can think of loss and damage as the harmful consequences of climate change that happen, even if we try to prevent or adapt to them.

Understanding Loss And Damage

Loss and damage are harmful effects caused by climate change. These effects can come from extreme weather like cyclones, droughts, and heatwaves, or slower changes such as rising sea levels, land turning into desert, glaciers melting, land becoming less fertile, oceans becoming more acidic, and increased salt in the soil.

Sometimes, the damage is permanent. For example, if the sea level rises, it can cover islands. Or, if there’s a long drought, fresh water can become scarce and farming land can become useless.

Loss and damage is about how climate change harms people and nature. It can change how often weather extremes like storms, floods, and heatwaves happen, and where they happen. It can also cause slower changes like sea level rise, ocean acidification, loss of species, and land turning into desert.

Communities suffer loss and damage when the effects of climate change are more than they can adapt to. This happens when they don’t have enough money for changes to adapt or when it’s not possible to make changes to adapt.

Economic Losses And Non-Economic Losses

Climate change damages are of two types: economic losses and non-economic losses.

Economic Loss And Damage

Economic losses can be quantified in monetary terms.
Examples of economic damage include costs of rebuilding infrastructure after a flood and loss of agricultural income due to drought.
Economic losses affect goods, services, and resources traded in markets.
Impacts could be national (like supply chain disruptions) or local (like individual farmers’ losses).
Case in point: frequent cyclones and heavy rainfall in coastal Bangladesh have negatively affected salt farming, a crucial employment source.
These disruptions have led to a decrease in local salt production and an increase in salt imports.

Non-Economic Loss And Damage

Non-economic loss and damage are impacts that cannot be valued in monetary terms.
These include trauma from experiencing disasters like tropical cyclones, community loss due to displacement, or loss of biodiversity.
Non-economic losses can be extremely devastating.
Examples of such losses include the loss of family members, disappearance of cultures, or trauma from forced migration.
In Kosrae, Micronesia, communities have lost burial grounds due to coastal erosion from rising sea levels.
Arctic sea ice loss has impacted the cultural identity and hunting practices of Inuit communities.
Even though hard to quantify or monetise, these non-economic losses drastically affect community well-being.

The Extent Of Loss And Damage

Some loss and damage resulting from climate change are inevitable due to two key factors.

Firstly, certain climate change impacts are already “locked in” to the Earth’s system, as greenhouse gases emitted over an extended period fully affect the climate system.

Secondly, there are limits to our ability to adapt to these impacts. Loss and damage may occur when adaptation is not optimally implemented or when adaptation limits are reached. This can happen due to factors such as affordability, physical or technical constraints, social difficulties, or insufficiency in preventing harm to humans, the environment, and assets.

Loss and damage occur when we can’t fully adapt because of financial constraints, technical limitations, social challenges, or just lack of sufficient measures.
The extreme floods in Pakistan in 2022, intensified by climate change, are an example of these costs.
These floods resulted in losses of up to US$40 billion.
Climate change increased the intensity of rainfall by 50-75%.
The floods affected 33 million people and cost 1,600 lives.
They destroyed over 2 million houses and damaged extensive roads and cropland, with crop losses reaching US$2.3 billion.

Depending on our global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, the cost of loss and damage that go beyond adaptation could reach:

US$290–580 billion in 2030 for developing countries.
Up to US$1–1.8 trillion in 2050 for these countries.

Reducing Loss And Damage From Climate Change

Enhancing resilience before extreme weather events or gradual environmental changes is critical to minimise the impact of climate change.
Proactive measures such as strengthening flood defences are necessary.
It’s important to implement mechanisms that offer financial and social protection to those affected by loss and damage.
Insurance is a key instrument in this regard, but it’s unaffordable and inaccessible for many.
After extreme weather events, there’s potential to mitigate loss and damage by incorporating resilience into recovery efforts.
This can be accomplished by reconstructing infrastructure with a focus on the future, ensuring it’s fortified against the impacts of climate change.
Actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change are vital for all countries, developed and developing alike. These actions aim to minimise loss and damage from climate change.
Broader policy and governance arrangements play a significant role in addressing this global issue.
Factors influencing communities’ vulnerability and exposure to climate change include land-use planning, access to education and health services, infrastructure quality and location, and disaster preparedness.
A comprehensive response across different policy areas is required to address these factors.
Sustainable development, as stated in Article 8 of the Paris Agreement, is a critical aspect of reducing the risk of loss and damage.
Focus should be on the most vulnerable communities, with policy formulation tackling the underlying factors contributing to their vulnerability.
Enhancing resilience against potential future loss and damage is possible through such targeted policy formulation.

What Does The IPCC Say About Losses And Damages?

The IPCC Working Group II Report on Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (part of the Sixth Assessment Report) represents the most comprehensive evaluation of losses and damages thus far.

Four key messages from the report are:

Losses and damages are already being experienced: The current global warming, with an increase of 1.1°C, has already resulted in significant and hazardous losses and damages. It has caused disruptions in nature and has profoundly impacted the lives of billions of individuals, despite the collective efforts made to adapt.
Future losses and damages will rise with increased global warming: As global warming intensifies, the repercussions of losses and damages become more pronounced and harder to mitigate, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable populations living in poverty.
Losses and damages are unavoidable and are unequally distributed: While adaptation efforts are crucial, it is important to acknowledge that they cannot completely eliminate all losses and damages. Unfortunately, developing countries and vulnerable groups, including those of low socio-economic status, migrant communities, the elderly, women, and children, tend to bear the brunt of these adversities.
Losses and damages are not comprehensively addressed by current financial, governance and institutional arrangements: In many developing countries, especially those that are vulnerable, the current international, national, and sub-national approaches to tackle loss and damage are inadequate.

Loss and Damage In The International Climate Negotiations

Loss and Damage in the international policy debate broadly refers to efforts to “avert, minimise and address loss and damage associated with climate change impacts, especially in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change” (UNFCCC Decision 3/CP.18).

In general, the terms ‘avert’ and ‘minimise’ are commonly used to describe mitigation and adaptation, respectively. On the other hand, the term ‘address’ pertains to actions taken to tackle the impacts of climate change that either could not be avoided or have not been avoided yet.

The debate surrounding Loss and Damage has been highly contentious in international climate negotiations, primarily due to concerns related to fairness, equity, and establishing historical responsibility for climate change.

Developing countries assert that developed nations bear historical responsibility for climate change. Consequently, they have demanded compensation from developed countries to assist in tackling the existing and potential loss and damage.

Nevertheless, the insistence on providing compensation has been a significant point of contention for many developed countries. These countries perceive the resolution of Loss and Damage as a proactive form of adaptation, encompassing preemptive measures aimed at mitigating potential losses and damages.

Warsaw International Mechanism For Loss And Damage

The Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage was created in 2013 at the COP19 climate conference. This Mechanism is part of UNFCCC negotiations, with developed nations viewing Loss and Damage as part of adaptation efforts.
The Mechanism’s goal is to address loss and damage in developing nations. This is achieved by improving knowledge of risk management, coordinating efforts to handle losses and damage, and boosting actions and support, such as climate finance, technology, and capacity-building. These needs are recognised in Article 8 of the Paris Agreement.
At the 2019 COP25 review of the Mechanism, many developing nations demanded a stronger role for the Mechanism.
They also called for finance to be provided to vulnerable, developing countries to help minimise and address loss and damage.
No agreement, however, was reached on whether developed countries are obligated to finance loss and damage.
The debate on Loss and Damage finance continued in 2021 at COP26, leading to the establishment of the Glasgow Dialogue on Finance for Loss and Damage.

COP27 And The Loss And Damage Fund

COP27 took place in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt in November 2022. The conference resulted in an important agreement to create a loss and damage fund.
This fund supports vulnerable countries that are suffering from the harsh impacts of climate change.
The deal was celebrated as a ground-breaking event because it marked a significant shift in the attitude of wealthier nations.
Wealthier nations accepted the new fund for a few reasons. Firstly, the fund doesn’t solely rely on them for money. It will also include money from public and private sources.
The concept of climate justice has become widely accepted. This means that wealthier nations, which contribute a lot to carbon emissions, should help to deal with the damages of climate change.
Developing countries and NGOs have been working hard to establish this fund. Their efforts, along with increased media attention, have put pressure on wealthier nations to support the fund.

How Will The Loss And Damage Fund Work?

The Loss and Damage Fund’s purpose is to offer financial help to poorer countries. This help is for dealing with unavoidable climate change risks such as rising sea levels, heat waves, desertification, forest fires, and crop failures.
The fund aims to assist these nations in rebuilding their physical and social infrastructure after such events.
The success of the fund depends on the speed at which nations can make it operational.
A Transitional Committee was created for the fund’s operation. This committee is made up of 24 members from different areas of the world.
The committee’s first meeting took place in March 2023.
The committee’s job is to make recommendations before the COP28 meeting in Dubai, UAE in December 2023.

What Is The Difference Between Mitigation, Adaptation And Addressing Loss And Damage?

Within the framework of the Paris Agreement on climate change, nations have acknowledged the crucial significance of “averting, minimising, and addressing” loss and damage. This entails actively curbing greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation) and proactively safeguarding communities from the impacts of climate change (adaptation) in order to prevent or reduce potential loss and damage.

Mitigation refers to actions aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to lessen the extent of climate change. This is the first defence against climate change.
However, when these efforts aren’t enough, we turn to adaptation. This involves making changes to adjust to the impacts of climate change. But there are times when adaptation isn’t possible or successful. This is where we encounter “soft” and “hard” adaptation limits.
“Soft” limits occur when there are available adaptation choices, but lack of funds prevents their implementation.
“Hard” limits are when there is no feasible way to avoid significant climate risks.
An example of these limits is the situation of coral reefs. Even if we limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C, 70-90% of tropical coral reefs will still be lost by this century’s midpoint. This will deeply affect coastal communities that rely on these reefs for fishing.
This scenario is known as loss and damage. It’s already happening, and many communities don’t have the resources to handle it. Thus, it’s crucial that climate plans and policies also consider loss and damage, alongside mitigation and adaptation.

Is Loss And Damage An Issue Of Liability And Compensation?

Loss and damage from climate change is a contentious issue, and one of the reasons is the fear of developed nations. They worry that if they pay for the losses and damages due to climate change, they may be legally responsible. It could lead to massive legal cases and demands for compensation. Therefore, in the Paris Agreement, these nations insisted on terms that would not make them legally liable.

At the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27), the topic of funding for loss and damage was on the table. It was agreed that the approach would be “cooperative and facilitative,” without involving any responsibility or compensation. This agreement made developed countries comfortable enough to continue with the negotiations.