Loss & damage

The international community must come to a better shared understanding of loss and damage. At the global level the increasing prominence of this issue in the international climate negotiations is due to residual loss and damage, defined as climate change impacts that we are unable to prevent through mitigation and adaptation efforts. This led to the agreement at COP 19 (2013) of the ‘Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts.’

The controversial nature of the topic is indicative of the significant implications in global climate change negotiations. It is evident, therefore, that a better understanding of approaches to address loss and damage is required. Policymakers will need to explore, develop and implement comprehensive frameworks that address risk reduction; risk transfer such as insurance; risk retention such as contingency funds and social safety nets.  CDKN has been working with the Government of Bangladesh and others to deepen the technical understanding of what loss and damage is, and how it can be addressed.