Page - 262 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

262 A.Lopezet al. 11.1 Introduction Article8oftheParisAgreementcallsforactionon‘averting,minimisingandaddress- ingLossandDamageassociatedwith theadverseeffectsofclimatechange, includ- ing extremeweather events and slowonset events.’ In response, decisions need to bemade—on awide range of topics and at various levels of governance ranging from the global level,whereUNFCCCnegotiators need to decide how to take this topic forward,howtoallocate fundingand toestablishpossible institutional frame- worksaroundLossandDamage(L&D),all thewaythroughtothelocal level,where communitiesneed tounderstandandmanagechanging risks. Despite significant progress in scientific understanding and methodological advances, decisionmakers face key constraintswhenmaking those decisions: lim- ited data, uncertainty about climatic and socio-economic trends, and the complex interplay between climate and humanbehaviourmay seemas insurmountable and lead to inactivity ifnot addressedproperly. Thesechallengesarewellknownto those taskedwithclimatechangeadaptation anddisaster riskmanagement (Watkiss2015), andarangeofdecision-support tools have beendeveloped in response.However, assessing and addressingL&Dsuffers froma further level of complexity: it is a politically charged concept,with blurred conceptual boundaries (e.g., where do climate change adaptation efforts stop and wheredoestheL&Dremitstart?)andamoralandethicaldimension(seeintroduction byMechler et al. 2018; chapters byWallimann-Helmer et al. 2018; Schinko et al. 2018; Jameset al. 2018;Botzenet al. 2018 in thisbook). TheL&Dofclimatechangeofficiallyentered theUNFCCCdiscussions in2007, but the concept itself has a far longer history.Growing awareness of the projected negative impacts of climate changehasbeenat the coreof the emergingmitigation and adaptation efforts. In the early adaptation literature, therewas reference to the residual impactsaftermitigationandadaptationwerecarriedout. In thiscontext, the ideaofL&Dassociatedwithextremeeventsappearedasaconsequenceof thelimits tocurrent levelsof adaptation (Smit et al. 2000;Smithers andSmit1997). While L&Dunder theUNFCCC is foremost a political concept determined by legalconsiderationsaroundclimatechange, the technicaldimensionofL&Dhas its roots in thegeneral riskmanagementmethodology, basedona terminologywidely appliedoriginally inDisasterRiskReduction(DRR)andlateroninClimateChange Adaptation(CCA).UNFCCC(2012a)explorestheterminologyindetail—highlight- ingdifferentapproachestoL&DascurrentlyappliedtoDRRandCCA.Mostbroadly, ‘damage’ isseenas thephysical impactand‘loss’asmonetizedvalues,whichcould bedirector indirect (economicfollowoneffects) (UNFCCC2012a).Here thefocus isoncategorising,assessingandprojectingimpactsofevents—mainlyinthecontext ofdisasters, but also in thecontextofclimatechange implications for sudden-onset andslow-onsetimpacts,overarangeoftime-scales,andincludingdirectandindirect economiclosses,aswellasso-callednon-economiclossessuchaslossesoflivesand ofeco-systemservices.InthebroaderclimatechangecontextL&Disoftendescribed as the third cost element of climate change, as outlined byKlein et al. (2007) (see