Recasting the disproportionate impacts of climate extremes

Loss and damage (L&D) has been on the international agenda for over 20 years, and recently gained significant headway at UNFCCC COP27. L&D has been a controversial aspect of the international climate negotiations. This is largely due to L&D being connected to responsibility and compensation for the impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities. Researchers and practitioners are beginning to ask how they can help with L&D while many remain unsure about what this may mean.

Loss and Damage (L&D) is associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including the effects that are related to extreme weather events, such as intense typhons, but also occur in slow events, such as at sea level rise. The paper sets out to synthesise three specific challenges to L&D: lack of a coherent definition of L&D, gaps in measuring disproportionate effects of loss and damage on people, including the non economic consequences of L&D events, who it affects, how and why, and on what scale, and finally, absence of coherent understanding of climate governance instruments to influence L&D in ways that do not undermine existing adaptation and development efforts.