Page - vi - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

The scientific community is called upon to support policy-makers to ensure that wehandle the challenge in themost effective andwell-informedmanner.Thisbook provides a valuable contribution to this effort. For the first time, the current sci- entific research and resulting knowledge on loss and damage has been collected in one comprehensive volume, allowing us to take stock ofwhatwe know and don’t know, especially in areas of critical importance to SIDS, including implementing comprehensive climate riskmanagement approaches; addressing slowonset events; financing efforts to address loss and damage; and understandingwhat institutional and legal arrangements are required to ensure the most effective responses. Of particular importance to the sustainable futureof small islands are the impacts from slow onset events—including sea level rise, permanent rises in temperature and ocean acidification.Understanding thenature of these events and their impactswill require dedicated attention, because they are already beginning to affect countries and are certain to continue. Slow impact events severely limit the applicability of traditional riskmanagement approaches and require novel solutions. It ismy hope that this book will lay a foundation for further research in this area and foster enhanced understanding and closer cooperation between the scientific community and policy-makers on this and other critical matters. This is essential as wemove forward in ourworkwith the aimof addressing loss anddamage.There ismuch to be gained in terms of facilitating effective decision-making that is grounded in science and far toomuch to be lost if we continue to tarry or get it wrong on this exigent issue of loss and damage. Dawn Pierre-Nathoniel Deputy Chief, Sustainable Development and Environment Officer Department of Sustainable Development Saint Lucia vi Foreword I: Perspective fromSaint Lucia