Page - 223 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

9 The ImpactsofClimateChangeonEcosystemServices… 223 losses and damages refer to impacts of climate change that could in theory have beenavoidedbut thathavenotbeenavoidedbecauseof inadequateefforts to reduce risks or adapt. For example, unavoided losses and damagesmay result if a coastal stormandhigh tide inundate properties because availablemeasures to adapt to sea level rise were not adopted. By contrast, impacts and risks that are impossible to avoid throughmitigation and adaptation efforts are characterised as “unavoidable lossesanddamages”(Verheyen2012). Inreality there isambiguityaroundwhatcan andwhatcannotbeavoided. Itdependson technological, social, economicorpolit- ical limits tomitigation and adaptation,which are context-specific and subjective. Strongdisastermitigation, for example,mightbe technicallypossiblebutnotpolit- ically feasible or economically viable. Similarly, if a small, low-lying atoll would be confrontedwith 6mof sea level rise, it could be technically possible to build a dykearoundtheisland,but thecostsofsuchaneffortwouldprobablybeprohibitive. Thischapterdoesnotattempt to resolve theseambiguities.However, it is important to acknowledge that they exist because there are important policy implications. In some cases, resourceswould be investedmost efficiently in trying to avoid losses anddamages,andinothercases itwillbebetter toaccept lossesandfindsustainable anddignifiedsolutions for thepeoplewhoareaffected. A useful concept in the discussion about avoidable and unavoidable losses and damagesare ‘adaptation limits’ (Dowet al. 2013;Prestonet al. 2013;Warner et al. 2013).According to the IPCC, adaptation limits are reachedwhenadaptation is no longer able to “provide an acceptable level of security from risks to the existing objectives andvalues andprevent the loss of thekeyattributes, components or ser- vices of ecosystems” (Klein et al. 2014).An adaptation limits is considered ‘hard’ when no adaptive actions are possible to avoid intolerable risk,while soft adapta- tion limits occurwhen options are currently not available to avoid intolerable risk throughadaptiveaction(Agardetal.2014).Inpractice, it isnotalwaysclearwhether anadaptation limit ishardor soft.Similarly,what renders riskacceptable, tolerable or intolerable is subjective, context-specific and socially constructed (Mechler and Schinko2016). Acommonwayof analysing losses anddamages is bydifferentiating economic andnon-economic lossesanddamages (NELD).Economic lossesareunderstood to be the loss of resources, goods and services that are commonly traded inmarkets, suchas livestockandcashcrops.Non-economic lossesanddamages involve things that are not commonly traded inmarkets (UNFCCC2013). Examples ofNELD in natural systems include loss of habitat and biodiversity and damage to ecosystem services. While such items are not traded in markets, there is a strong research communitydedicated tovaluing theservicesecosystemsprovide, andhencealso to quantifying losseswhen they occur (Costanza et al. 2014). Examples ofNELD in humansystemsincludeculturalandsociallossesassociatedwiththelossofancestral landandforcedrelocation.Suchclimatechange impactsaredifficult toquantifybut importanttoaddress(MorrisseyandOliver-Smith2014;chapterbySerdeczny2018). Losses anddamages can alsobe categorised as direct and indirect. Examples of direct losses and damages include loss of life, land, crops, or livestock–aswell as damage tohouses, properties, and infrastructure.Such lossesanddamagesaregen-