Page - 11 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

1 Science forLossandDamage.FindingsandPropositions 11 1.3 TheResearchPerspective:Definitions andConcepts 1.3.1 DefiningLossesandDamages Manyof the issues associatedwith theL&Ddiscourse are controversial, andgiven the various perspectives on what exactly L&Dmight refer to, it is unsurprising that there is no official UNFCCC definition for “Loss and Damage.” There are, however,someaspectsofL&Dthathavebeenrelativelywidelyaccepted.UNFCCC documentation consistently states that L&D refers to climate-related impacts and risks from both sudden-onset extreme events, such as flooding and cyclones, and slow-onsetevents, includingsea level rise,glacial retreat,desertification,andothers (UNFCCC2013,2015).Someanalystshavealsomadeadistinctionbetween losses associatedwith irreversibility, for example, fatalities fromheat-related disasters or the permanent destruction of coral reefs,whiledamages are referred to as impacts that canbe alleviatedor repaired, suchasdamages tobuildings (Boydet al. 2017). Another useful distinction,which has been adopted bymany authors (including in thisbook),wasmadebyVerheyenandRoderick(2008)betweenavoided,unavoided andunavoidable lossesanddamages (seeTable1.1). Avoided losses and damages are those that have been and will be avoided by DRR andCCA.Unavoided impacts and risks are andwill not be reduced due to socio-economicconstraintsandtrade-offs (finance,governance,politicaleconomy). Theseunavoidedlossesanddamagesarealsocalledresidual impactsandrisksinthe literature (Warner and van derGeest 2013) and are characterised by limits imped- ingavoidanceand reduction.Lossesanddamagescanbematerial (i.e., physical)or immaterial, aswell as economic (measurable in financial or economic terms) and non-economic,with some overlap between these categories (Schäfer andBalogun 2015;Serdeczny2018).Manyconsider theL&Ddiscourse todealparticularlywith lossesanddamages“beyondadaptation”and limits toadaptation, that is,unavoided orunavoidableimpactsthatgobeyondadaptationpotentials(VerheyenandRoderick 2008;vanderGeest andWarner2015).Whileadaptationopportunities andbarriers Table1.1 Classifying lossesanddamages Avoided Unavoided Unavoidable Avoidable lossesanddamages thatcanandwill beavoided byclimatechangemitigation and/or adaptationmeasures Avoidable lossesanddamages that areandwill notbe addressedby further mitigationand/or adaptation measures, even though avoidancewouldbepossible. Financial, technical and political constraints, aswell as case-specific riskpreferences narrowdowntheadaptation space Lossesanddamages that cannotbeavoidedandadapted to through furthermitigation and/or adaptationmeasures, for instance impacts fromslow onsetprocesses thathave kicked-off already, suchas sea level riseandmeltingglaciers Classification furtherdevelopedbasedonVerheyenandRoderick (2008)