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8 Non-economicLossandDamageand theWarsaw⊠211
communicationof the relevanceofnon-economicvalues for thoseaffectedby their
potential loss particularly challenging. Instruments aimed at avoiding or respond-
ing to non-economic losseswithin a centralised setting like theUNFCCCneed to
be able to accommodate such context-dependence of non-economicvalues.Rather
than relyingonafinite set of indicators, standardisedassessment rules coulddeter-
minewhatwouldbeofficiallyrecognizedaslossofnon-economicvaluesthatmerits
international attentionandaction (Serdecznyet al. 2016a).
8.3.2 Incommensurability
Most non-economic values are considered to be incommensurable. According to
(Chang2013)â[p]erhapsthemostfrequentlyrecurringideathatfallsunderthelabel
âtheincommensurabilityofvaluesâisthatvalueslackacommonunitofmeasurementâ
(p.5).Thismeansthatwhileindividualitemsmightbecomparableintermsofpriority
or importance ranking or according to an imprecise unit, they cannot bemeasured
ononeunitaryscale. Incontrast, ifallvaluescouldbeexpressedbyoneunitaryunit,
thenthedifferencebetweenthemwouldbemerelyoneofquantity.Changillustrates
suchacase:
Forexample, if thevalueofoneâschildcanbemeasuredby thesameunit thatmeasures the
value of a beach vacation, then our attitudes toward the loss of value of each should be a
matter of degree. Insofar as our practical attitudes are driven by the value of their objects,
our attitudes toward our children should differ fromour attitudes toward beach vacations
only inquantity, not inquality. (Chang2013:6)
A standard unitary unit of value is amonetary numéraire.Monetisation, as the
process of assigningmonetary values, effectively puts all values on one scale and
expressestheirdifferenceasoneinquantity.Whichvaluesareconsideredincommen-
surable is culturally contingent andmay change over time. For example,while the
valueofecosystemsisfrequentlyexpressedinmonetaryterms(Sukhdevetal.2014),
someraiseobjections tosuchvaluationandquestionthebenefitsofmonetisationfor
biodiversityconservation (e.g.Gomez-BaggethunandRuiz-Perez2011).
Conceptually speakingmonetisation as a valuation technique is thus not com-
patiblewith the incommensurabilityofvalue.Consequently, if incommensurability
ofnon-economicvalues is respected thenalternativemeansofvaluation, aswell as
communication andweighting of values are needed. This presents a challenge to
decision-makingparticularly insystemswherecost-benefitanalysesaredrawnupon
as theprimarymethod fordecision-making (seeBox8.1).
Loss and Damage from Climate Change
Concepts, Methods and Policy Options
- Title
- Loss and Damage from Climate Change
- Subtitle
- Concepts, Methods and Policy Options
- Authors
- Reinhard Mechler
- Laurens M. Bouwer
- Thomas Schinko
- Swenja Surminski
- JoAnne Linnerooth-Bayer
- Publisher
- Springer Open
- Date
- 2019
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-319-72026-5
- Size
- 16.0 x 24.0 cm
- Pages
- 580
- Keywords
- Environment, Climate change, Environmental law, Environmental policy, Risk management
- Categories
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Umwelt und Klima