Page - 288 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

288 W.J.WouterBotzenet al. Keywords Adaptationpathways ·Cost-Benefit analysis ·Damagemitigation Insurance ·Loss&Damage ·Riskassessment ·Riskmanagement ·Protection 12.1 Introduction: Integrated Climate Risk Management in the Lossand Damage Context The goal of this chapter is to establish the links between the concept of Loss and Damage (L&D) and climate riskmanagement,with relevance to theL&Dmecha- nismundertheUNFCCC.Climateriskmanagement isunderstoodtoincludenatural disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change (IPCC 2012). L&Dwas recognised in the 2015 Paris Agreement as a new pillar of climate policy, next to mitigationofgreenhousegasemissionsandadaptation(UNFCCC2015).Itspurpose is to address irreversible losses from anthropogenic climate change, and resulting damages beyond what adaptation can avoid. In this context, efforts are currently madeby theUNFCCCtopropose activities under this pillar as part of thenewcli- mate agreement, in order to address L&D.However, various interpretations exist, which are further discussed in the chapter by James et al. (2018); see introduction byMechleretal. (2018a);andthechapterbyBouwer(2018).For thepurposeof this chapter,wewill apply the“Riskmanagementperspective”proposedbyJamesetal. (2015)and furtheroperationalised in thechapterbySchinkoet al. (2018). This implies thatL&Drefers to impacts ‘beyondadaptation,’and thatadaptation can prevent L&D (ex ante), while other approaches (such as insurance) can help dealing with L&D (ex post). Appropriate measures for risk management include natural disaster risk reduction through engineering solutions or othermeasures to mitigaterisk,andrisktransfermechanisms,suchasinsurance.Climateriskmanage- ment in this chapter is narroweddown to include adaptation to anticipated changes inextremeweather riskdue toanthropogenicclimatechangeaswellas reductionof extremeweather riskbeyondadaptation (theadaptationdeficit).Climateadaptation according to the IPCC(2012)definition is: the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects. In human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate or avoid harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In some natural systems, human interventionmay facilitate adjustment to expected climate and its effects. In this definition, adaptation would not include dealing with L&D that occur beyond the prevention of risks, becausewhenL&Doccurs, impacts have not been moderated insomeway. In this respectL&Dsolutionscanbeviewedasaddressing the residual risk after adaptation. Natural disaster risk is defined as a function of hazard,exposureandvulnerability.Insimplifiedformthisfunctionisoftendescribed as follows. Risk Hazard × Exposure × Vulnerability