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64 L.M.Bouwer
3.1 Introduction
3.1.1 Impacts fromExtremeWeather
Impacts from anthropogenic climate change are often equatedwith impacts from
weather-relatednatural hazards, suchasfloods, droughts andwindstorms.Extreme
weather events can lead to substantial impacts, including loss of life, damages to
buildings,agriculturalproductionandnaturalcapital,aswellaslongertermeconomic
effects.ThediscussiononLossandDamagefromclimatechangethereforewarrants
adiscussionon theextent towhich increases in impacts fromextremeweatherhave
alreadyoccurred,whatimpactscanbeexpectedinthefuture,andwhichlossescannot
bepreventedor reduced through risk reductionandadaptation.
In this chapter “climate change” is defined according to the definition by the
IntergovernmentalPanel(IPCC2012),whichincludesbothnaturalvariability,aswell
ashumaninducedclimatechangefromanthropogenicforcingsuchasgreenhousegas
emissions.Lossesanddamageshavevaryingdefinitions,andwediscuss theseinthe
lightofcurrentunderstandingofimpactsfromweatherextremes.Asexplainedinthe
introductorychapter (Mechler et al. 2018), “losses” refer tomonetary losses,while
“damages”aremeant tocovernon-monetary impacts aswell as irreversibleeffects.
Losses fromextremeweather can includeboth types;monetary losses (damages to
buildingsandotherproperty thatcanberepairedorreplaced),aswellnon-monetary
impactssuchas lossof life,health impacts,andirreversibledamagessuchascoastal
erosion, ecosystem impacts and societal impacts (for instance retreat after severe
flooding).
Current understanding shows that the changes in impacts fromextremeweather
hazardsare largelymoderatedbytheextent towhichhumansandassetsareexposed
to these hazards, and towhat extent they are vulnerable or sensitive to these haz-
ards.This implies that apart from the actual occurrenceof thehazards, the level of
impacts—relevant to the Loss andDamage debate—is influenced by non-climatic
factors.Quantitative riskassessmentmethodsandapproachespracticedsincemany
decades in natural hazard research can help to assess risk fromweather and geo-
physical extremes using the combination of these processes. The framework that
combines theseelementsofhazard,exposure, andvulnerabilityasdevelopedby the
IPCC(2012)hasnowbecomewidelyacceptedbytheclimatechangeresearchcom-
munity to understand and study the occurrence aswell as temporal changes in the
impactsfromextremes(e.g.Huggeletal.2013;seeframeworkdepictedinFig.3.1).
Thehazarddriver is influencedbychanges in climate; both fromanthropogenic
climatechange, resulting fromgreenhousegasemissions, aswell asnatural climate
variability.Exposure is influencedbychanges indevelopment, includingpopulation
growth and economic development that lead to increased accumulation of people
andcapitalassets in locations thatareat riskfromnaturalhazards.Vulnerabilityand
exposuremaychangebecauseofadaptationandrisk reductionactions that increase
the protection fromweather hazards and reduce sensitivity to these extremes that
would otherwise results in negative impacts. Governance can influence land-use
Loss and Damage from Climate Change
Concepts, Methods and Policy Options
- Titel
- Loss and Damage from Climate Change
- Untertitel
- Concepts, Methods and Policy Options
- Autoren
- Reinhard Mechler
- Laurens M. Bouwer
- Thomas Schinko
- Swenja Surminski
- JoAnne Linnerooth-Bayer
- Verlag
- Springer Open
- Datum
- 2019
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-319-72026-5
- Abmessungen
- 16.0 x 24.0 cm
- Seiten
- 580
- Schlagwörter
- Environment, Climate change, Environmental law, Environmental policy, Risk management
- Kategorien
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Umwelt und Klima