User:Jogdand.rushikesh/Loss Damage

harm caused by anthropogenic (human-generated) climate change

The appropriate response to loss and damage has been disputed since the UNFCCC's adoption. Establishing liability and compensation for loss and damage has been a long-standing goal for vulnerable and developing countries in the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and the Least Developed Countries Group in negotiations. However, developed countries have resisted this. The present UNFCCC loss and damage mechanism, the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage, focuses on research and dialogue rather than liability or compensation.

Definition
The UNFCCC has defined loss and damage to include harms resulting from sudden-onset events (climate disasters, such as cyclones) as well as slow-onset processes (such as sea level rise)

Climate reparations are loss and damage payments which are based on the concept of reparations. Climate reparations are a form of climate justice, in which compensation is necessary to hold countries accountable for loss and damage resulting from historical emissions, and is an ethical and moral obligation.

A Bangladeshi consultant remarked at COP26, "The term 'loss and damage' is a euphemism for terms we're not allowed to use, which are 'liability and compensation' ... 'Reparations' is even worse."

Early negotiations
Loss and damage was first referred to in a formally-negotiated UN text in the 2007 Bali Action Plan

Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage
The Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage, created in 2013, acknowledges that " loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change includes, and in some cases involves more than, that which can be reduced by adaptation ". Its mandate includes "enhancing knowledge and understanding", "strengthening dialogue, coordination, coherence and synergies among relevant stakeholders", and "enhancing action and support, including finance, technology and capacity-building, to address loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change". However, it makes no provisions for liability or compensation for loss and damage. The only reason loss and damage was even discussed in Warsaw was because the entire delegation of developing countries staged a walkout at negotiations.

The Paris Agreement provides for the continuation of the Warsaw International Mechanism but explicitly states that its inclusion "does not involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation". The inclusion of this clause was the condition on which developed countries, particularly the United States, agreed to include a reference to loss and damage.

In reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in 2013-2014 had no separate chapter on loss and damage, but Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability (WG2) Chapter 16 about adaptation limits and constraints, is very relevant for people interested in loss and damage. A qualitative data analysis of what the IPCC 5th Assessment Report has to say about loss and damage surprisingly showed that the term was used much more often in statements about Annex 1 countries (e.g. US, Australia or European countries) than in text about non-Annex 1 countries (most countries in Africa, Asia Latin America and the Pacific), which tend to be more vulnerable to impacts of climate change. Despite repeated suggestions by delegates from vulnerable countries, the IPCC 6th Assessment Report will not have a chapter on loss and damage.

COP 27: Loss and Damage accepted, Santiago Network to establish framework
After three decades of pushing for compensation for 'Loss and Damage' caused by climate change, the 27th Conference of Parties adopted the proposal. The parties agree to utilise the Santiago Network, established at COP25, to provide technical assistance in averting, minimizing, and addressing loss and damage.

This mean that rich countries have agreed to compensate poor countries for the damages that have been already caused, such as the 2022 Pakistan floods. Pakistani climate change minister Sherry Rehman, who pushed hard for this at the conference in Sharm el Sheikh, described this as a "down payment on climate justice".