Page - 222 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

222 K.vanderGeest et al. implicationsforlossesanddamagestopeopleandsociety.It introducesaconceptual frameworkforstudyingthesecomplexrelationsandappliesthisframeworktoacase studyofmulti-annualdrought in theWest-AfricanSahel.Thecasestudyshows that causal linksbetweenclimatechangeandaspecificevent,withsubsequent lossesand damages, areoftencomplicated.Oversimplificationmustbeavoidedand the roleof various factors, suchasgovernanceormanagement of natural resources, shouldbe at thecentreof future research. Keywords LossandDamage ·Climatechange ·Ecosystemservices Livelihoods ·Adaptation limits andconstraints ·Sahel ·Africa 9.1 Introduction Climate change amplifies extremeweather events such as heatwaves and extreme rainfall,with implications for losses anddamages affectingvulnerable populations around theworld.Global surface temperature has increased alreadyon average by 0.85 °C relative to pre-industrial temperature (IPCC 2014), and there is evidence that evenwithveryambitiousmitigationmeasures, theEarth’s atmospheric system mayalreadybecommitted towarmingofapproximately1.5°Cabovepre-industrial levels by2050 (WorldBank2014).Whilemitigation continues tobeof paramount importance to limit lossesanddamages, theextentandmagnitudeofclimatechange impactswillalmostcertainly increase in thefuture.Decisionmakerswillneed tobe prepared to implement both adaptation and risk reductionmeasures to avoid losses anddamagesandasuiteofotherapproacheswithincomprehensiveriskmanagement frameworks toaddress lossesanddamages that arenot averted (see introductionby Mechler et al. 2018). DefiningLossesandDamages No universally agreed-upon definition of losses and damages as part of the Loss andDamagedebate exists, and afit-for-purposeworkingdefinition varies by scale and purpose. This chapter refers to losses and damages as the adverse effects of climate-related stressors that cannot be or have not been avoided throughmitiga- tionormanagedthroughadaptationefforts (adaptedfromVanderGeestandWarner 2015).Lossesanddamagesoccurwhenadaptationmeasuresareunsuccessful, insuf- ficient, not implemented, or impossible to implement; when adaptationmeasures have unrecoverable costs; orwhenmeasures aremaladaptive,making ecosystems andsocietiesmorevulnerable (WarnerandvanderGeest2013). Verheyen (2012) makes an important and policy-relevant distinction between avoided, unavoided and unavoidable losses and damages (see alsoMechler et al. 2018).Avoided losses and damages refer to impacts and risks that have been pre- ventedthroughmitigationandadaptationmeasures.Forexample, ifanAfricanrain- fedfarmerhasplanteddrought-resistantcropvarietiesthatyieldedwellinaseasonof extremely lowrainfall, heor shehasavoidedadverseeffectsofdrought.Unavoided