Loss And Damage

 

Loss and damage refers to the dangerous and hard hitting effects of climate change that are often irreversible and unavoidable. These effects are from extreme weather events and disruptions of the climate system that negatively affect human communities or the natural world causing damage of one kind or another, or loss of both life and property. The nature of the harm caused is that it is permanent and cannot be undone and what is lost is irretrievable.

Loss and damage occurs at the end point of adaptation. It simply means the effects of climate change that cannot be prevented by adaptation. It is when adaptation is no longer applicable due to lack of technical know-how, inadequate resources, insufficient capacity, or the political climate does not allow for it.

Loss and damage can be experienced in varied ways. Slow onset events are climate caused events that build up slowly over a space of time. They include droughts and increasing desertification affecting agricultural lands, the absorption of carbon dioxide by oceans causing them to become saline and acidic. The loss of ground ice in the form of melting glaciers among others, decreases albedo or reflectivity of the ground surface causing more heat to be retained in the earth. Sea level rise threatens coastal cities and island nations.

Rising atmospheric temperatures cause the melting and shrinkage of ground ice in the soil (permafrost). This affects the integrity of and damages built infrastructure such as roads and buildings.

In Africa, wildlife tourism as an economic sector is greatly affected by climate change. This happens when climate change reduces the size of wildlife habitat and also affects availability of food and water. This contributes to human wildlife conflict and also animal death from insufficient food reserves. In Kenya, tourism was valued at $8.1 billion in 2019.

As in the case of island countries or those with a coastline, issues to do with loss and damage are particularly pressing, because their physical existence is threatened. Rising seas are swallowing up land leading to displacement and migration.

Tuvalu foreign minister giving his COP26 speech in knee-deep seawater.

Another way loss and damage occurs is when land is invaded by saline sea water rendering it unsuitable for farming and contaminating supply of drinking water. This endangers food security and causes loss of income. This is also experienced in countries losing acreage to desertification because of rising temperatures. Particularly in Africa, communities reliant on beef farming in pastoralist areas and those reliant on small scale agriculture are facing shrinkage of arable land due to altered seasons and extreme weather caused by climate change.

While there are adaptation efforts in growing more drought resistant crop varieties or animal breeds, yet there is a limit to what can be done to naturally drying out lands. Lives and livelihoods are significantly threatened due to loss of harvests and pasture lands and this not only affects food security and the economy, but affects security, human health and leads to social upheaval.

Ocean acidification and warming can negatively affect fishing stock, thereby impacting the fishing industry and related economy in general. Coral bleaching directly impacts tourism and biodiversity and also exposes communities to strong battering by ocean storms.

Collectively, the loss and damage caused by such cannot be completely avoided and has a high financial cost.

Rapid onset events likewise result to loss and damage. They include climate fueled wildfires and ocean storms as well as floods from extremely heavy rains that lead to significant loss of life and property.

Loss and damage is also classified into two major categories. Economic losses and non-economic losses. Economic losses can be assigned a monetary value. They include loss of property, effects on infrastructure, loss of business, agricultural land and farms, cities, tourist areas and loss of wildlife.

Non-economic losses cannot be quantified in terms of figures. They are loss of lands, memories, cultural value and areas of spiritual value/worship, traditional knowledge systems, effects on human health and well-being, displacement of people, statelessness and related identity.

While the effects of climate change on wildlife can be quantified in terms of impacts on tourism, yet the non-monetary ecological value of biodiversity loss in the form of extinction or reduction in numbers of unique and endemic species cannot. This is the same for the loss of ecosystem services from climate damaged ecosystems.

Climate change is a public health concern. This is exemplified in climate triggered heat waves and water related diseases. As is the case, the illnesses and death caused by such is significant, especially because it is sudden and so considerably strains the unprepared health infrastructure.

Loss of human life stands out because no monetary figure can be placed on it. An example is Cyclone Idai in 2019 which caused the death of 602 of people in Mozambique.

Displacement of people as a result of climate caused heavy rains and floods, sea level rise, desertification and others cause forced migration and leads to a host of issues, namely loss of territory, income and livelihoods, nationality and identity questions, political tussles and debates etc.

 For a long time, adaptation and mitigation have been the two guiding principles of climate action, but these two do not entirely encompass climate action. Loss and damage has been discussed since the inception of the UNFCCC around 1991 but had not been properly included in the text of legal climate change agreements for a long time. It was previously referred to as a part of adaptation.

Stakeholders, particularly from the Small Island and developing countries have long urged for the inclusion of loss and damage, and this was finally successful when it was added as the third part of climate action, separate from adaptation. However, the efforts to have the necessary financial support accorded is still ongoing.

The UNFCCC recognized loss and damage in 2013 at COP19 when the Warsaw Implementation Mechanism was created. This was further concretized by the Paris Agreement as Article 8 which mentions the “role of sustainable development in reducing loss and damage.” The Glasgow Climate Pact (2021) agreed to at COP26 formally mentions loss and damage as well.

The Warsaw mechanism, strengthened at the 2021 climate summit, focuses on addressing loss and damage in three main ways: knowledge management, guidance and all-inclusive and wide ranging risk evaluation, the second is creating mechanisms for dialogue and fostering understanding among all the stakeholders, and the third is financial support, technical know-how and capacity building.

In view of this, COP21 requested the Executive committee of the Warsaw Mechanism to form the Fiji Clearing House for Risk Transfer. This was done at COP23. The facility serves as a depository or source for useful data and facts on insurance and risk transfer and connects different parties as per their need.

Domestic social protection measures are a part of the response to loss and damage. It would include a fund for affected victims, housing, food and basic necessities. It also covers compensation and resettlement. All these initiatives however need finance which might be additional and over and above a country’s ability to self-fund. This is why finance for loss and damage is absolutely critical and should be a stand-alone part of climate finance.

Developing countries have asked for a fund, particularly insurance, through which the effects of loss and damage can be dealt with. This is vital for island states because they face severe climate impacts.

Another pending issue about loss and damage is the resettlement of climate migrants. There is still no international consensus or agreement on this. The World Bank puts the figure at 143 million people who will be displaced by climate change by 2050. This is particularly dire in Sub Saharan Africa, South Asia and South America.

Technical support is needed to help in reclamation and possible restoration of areas affected by loss and damage.

Climate resilience needs to be included in the national and regional legal and policy frameworks. This requires expertise in climate change and law, which again levels on the need for climate education and sensitization, especially for civil servants and lawmakers.

Quick disaster response is necessary in order to alleviate the impact and severity of loss and damage. This necessitates the need for climate change training and creation of awareness, especially in the technical real life aspects that demand manpower and skilled expertise. This can be done through training programs like workshops.

In the case of the loss and damage to crop harvests triggering food insecurity, storage facilities to serve as a safety net should be constructed. Some island countries purchase land in other territories to protect food security of their citizenry.

For sea side cities – flood defenses can be built to protect against encroaching sea water; which is not a hundred per cent foolproof because the rising water eventually swallows up the land.

It is important to note that virtually all, if not most of the efforts to address loss and damage require finance, which is absolutely imperative.

Unfortunately, to this day, developed nations, historically responsible for climate change, don’t want to be held legally and financially responsible for loss and damage. This of course, is an issue of climate justice.

COP 25, launched the Santiago Network for loss and damage later funded at COP26, but there still exists no finance to compensate or even help with loss and damage at the international level of climate negotiations.