Seite - 17 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

1 Science forLossandDamage.FindingsandPropositions 17 Change on Ecosystem Services and Resulting Losses and Damages to People and SocietywrittenbyKeesvanderGeest,AlexdeSherbinin, StefanKienberger, ZintaZommers,AshaSitati, ErinRoberts andRachel James advances understand- ing of the impacts of climatic stressors on ecosystems in light of the implications for losses and damages to people and society. The chapter develops a conceptual framework for studying the complex relations,which is applied to a case study of multi-annual drought in the drylands of theWest-African Sahel. This case study exhibits the complexity of causal links betweenclimate change, climate variability and specificweather and climate events leading to losses and damages, including warming,multi-decadaldrought, andflooding.Theauthorsconclude thechapterby advisingagainst theoversimplificationofcausalityandsuggest thatgovernanceand natural resourcemanagementshouldbegivenattentioninfutureresearchandpolicy discussions. Howdoweunderstand displacement and resettlement in the context of climate change?AlisonHeslin,NatalieDeliaDeckard,RobertOakesandAriannaMontero- Colbert’s contribution on Displacement and Resettlement: Understanding the Role of Climate Change in Contemporary Migration presents challenges and debates in the literature on climate change impacts and the growingglobal flowof people.Theauthorsposition theirdiscussionwithin the literatureonenvironmental migration, presenting associateddefinitions, formsof environmentalmigration and waystomeasurethemovementofpeople.Theliteratureonthereceptionofmigrants andmigrant resettlement isalsopresented.Thediscussion iscontextualised through a selection of caseswhere the environment plays a role in displacing populations, includingsealevelriseinPacificIslandStates,cyclonicstormsinBangladesh,deser- tification inWestAfrica, anddeforestation inSouthAmerica’sSouthernCone.The examples highlight the complex set of losses and damages incurred by population displacement ineachcase. 1.4.3 ResearchandPractice:ReviewingMethodsandTools Thechapter on theRole of the Physical Sciences in Loss and Damage Decision- MakingbyAnaLopez,SwenjaSurminskiandOliviaSerdecznyelaboratesoncon- tributionsthatphysicalclimatesciencecanmaketoimprovedecision-makers’under- standingofclimate-relatedlossesanddamages.Forclimatescienceboththepresent andfutureareof relevancewhenestimatingactualandpotential lossesanddamages associatedwithclimatechange.Forboth timescalesclimatescienceseeks tounder- stand those aspects that determine the climate-hazard, including the links between human inducedchanges inclimateandclimatevariability, theprobabilityofoccur- rence of extrememeteorological events (e.g., rainfall), and the resulting hazards leadingtolossesanddamages(e.g.,flood).Thechapterreviewstheapproachesused to assess this component of risk. Particular attention is paid to the identification of sourcesofuncertaintyand thepotential forproviding robust information to support decision-making. As the authors demonstrate, uncertainty does not imply policy