Page - 275 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

11 TheRoleof thePhysicalSciences inLossandDamage… 275 11.4 Conclusions ThedifferentdimensionsofL&Dofclimatechangemakethisacomplextopic,with a range of interpretations, approaches and responses being considered, while the politicalnegotiationsareinfullflow.Reflectingonthecurrentstateofdiscussionwe drawthe followingconclusions. To date there are no easy answers to theL&Dchallenges. This is not only due to technical and science limitations, but alsodue to thepolitical dimension and the uncertainties inherent in thisprocess. L&D of climate change remains a political concept, developed during the UNFCCCnegotiations (see chapter byCalliari et al. 2018), but with its technical roots inCCAandDRR.The2015ParisAgreementof theUNFCCCrecognises“the importance of averting, minimizing and addressing Loss and Damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including extremeweather events and slowonset events” (UNFCCC2015).This alignswith threegoals embedded in the L&Ddiscussion: • Tocreateawarenessaboutthesensitivityofhumanandnaturalsystemstoclimate, andtheneedtorespondwithappropriatemitigation,adaptationandDRRpolicies. • Toplanriskreductionandriskmanagement,with thegoal toenhanceadapta- tion to reducevulnerability andbuild resilience. • To informburden sharing for the costs ofmanaging L&D and compensation arrangements. Clearly, existing toolsandapproaches fromthefieldsofCCAandDRRcanhelp responding toL&D. Thefirst two goals are common to theCCAandDRRdiscussions, and lessons learnt in those areas can be shared here. The lack of data and knowledge should not be seen as a reason for delaying action—in fact there are a range of existing instruments and tools that can be applied to assess andmanage current and future L&D.Asdescribed above,within theCCAcommunity, tools and approaches have recently been developed to dealwith uncertainty from climate science in order to avoida ‘wait andsee’mentality fordecisionmaking. In thiscontext, thechallenges presentedby theneed to reduceandmanageclimatechange lossesanddamagesare not verydifferent to theonespresentedby theneed to adapt to climate change and variability. Thecompensationcomponent ofL&D,however, offers adifferent dimension to theclimatechangediscussion.WhilenotexplicitlyoutlinedintheofficialUNFCCC language, this is an underlying aim that has beendriving theL&Ddebate since its beginnings. The focus on compensation for those climate impacts that are beyond mitigationandadaptation’sreachposessomeadditionalchallengesfordecisionmak- ers—particularly in the context of theunderlying science, as seen in thediscussion ofattribution (seealsochapterbyJameset al. 2018 in thisbook). Importantly, themajorityofclimatechangeexperts (as reflectedbythe lastchap- tersofIPCC2012)seemtohavecometotheconclusionthattheonlywaytodealwith