Page - 7 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

1 Science forLossandDamage.FindingsandPropositions 7 including those that have only recently become available. As such, this volume is the first comprehensive outcome of the Loss andDamageNetwork, a partnership effort by scientists and practitioners, which includesmembers frommore than 40 institutionsaround theglobe.Aimedat informing research, policy, practice and the interestedpublic, thisbook: • discusses thepolitical, legal, economicand institutionaldimensionsofL&D, • introducesnormativeandethicalquestionscentral to thediscourse, • highlights the roleofclimate risksandclimate riskmanagement, • presents salient case studies fromaround theworld, • identifies practical and evidence-based policy and implementation options, and thus • supports the science-policy dialogue and possible future directions of the L&D discourse, bothunderandoutside theParisAgreement. The volume overall is organised into five sections: Sect. 1 sets the stage with key concepts and insights regarding trends in impacts and risks, while Sect. 2 presents critical issues that increasingly are shaping the policy discourse. In Sect. 3,methods and tools for research and practice are reviewed in terms of their applicability, Sect. 4 presents place-based evidence and insights on losses anddamages aswell as any soft andhard limitsacross geographies, andfinally in Sect.5,policyoptionsandotheractionsfortheL&Ddiscoursearediscussed.This introductorychapterfurtherelaboratesontheevolutionofthediscourse,presentskey conceptsof relevanceandsalience that arise fromthebook, shortly summarises the individual chapters, and concludes by outlining a number of propositions that link relevantfindings to forward-lookingsuggestions for research,practiceandpolicy. 1.2 Evolution of the PolicyDiscourse Formal and informal deliberations regarding “dangerous” climate-related risks and sharing the burdens (including justice considerations) associatedwith responses to climate change have been fundamental for shaping the climate debate since the beginning(seealsochapterbyCalliari etal.2018; seeFig.1.1).Science, inparticu- larasreportedbytheIPCCassessments,hashadamajorimpactonpolicyformulation and decisions as part of theUNFCCC (see Fig. 1.2). Given the ultimate objective as stipulated by theUNFCCC in 1992 “to prevent dangerous anthropogenic inter- ferencewith theclimate system”(UN1992,Art. 2), the focusof theUNFCCCwas originally–andcontinues topredominantlybe–onclimatemitigationresponses.The first discussions about L&Dwere initiated by theAlliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) in theearly1990swithdue linkages tomitigation.During thenegotiations that led to adoption of theUNFCCC in 1992, AOSIS proposed the establishment of, what they called, an international insurance scheme–also referred to by some asacompensation fund–tobe supportedbymandatorycontributions fromindustri- alisedpartiesonthebasisof theirgrossnationalproductandrelativegreenhousegas emissions (INC1991).