Loss and damage (climate change)

Loss and damage (in the context of climate change) is a concept to describe results from the adverse effects of climate change and how to deal with them (beyond climate change adaptation).^[1] There has been slow progress on implementing mitigation and adaptation. Some losses and damages are already occurring, and further loss and damage is unavoidable.^[2]: 62 There is a distinction between economic losses and non-economic losses. The main difference between the two is that non-economic losses involve things that are not commonly traded in markets.^[3]

The appropriate response by governments to loss and damage has been disputed since the UNFCCC's adoption of the term and concept. 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.^[4] However, developed countries have resisted this. The present UNFCCC mechanism to address loss and damage, the "Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage", focuses on research and dialogue rather than liability or compensation. At COP 27 in 2022, after years of negotiation, nations agreed on a proposal to establish a multilateral loss and damage fund to support communities in averting, minimizing, and addressing damages and risks where adaptation is not enough or comes too late.^[5]: 63