Loss and damage due to climate change: an overview of the UNFCCC negotiations
This paper raises the importance for the international community to understand and reduce loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including impacts related to extreme weather events and slow onset events, in response to the increase in weather-related disasters. It warns that impacts of loss and damage due to weather extremes and longer-term climatological shifts can set back development and reinforce the cycle of poverty in developing countries, and comments on the Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX) recently released by IPCC.
First introducing the history of the negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with all the milestone's agreements and decisions (such as the Bali Action Plan, the Copenhagen Accord, the Cancun Agreements and the COP17 in Durban concensus), the paper gives an update on the current status of the negotiations looking forward to help shape the agenda of the activities that will take place over 2012 in the run-up to COP18. It then adresses risk assessment as one of the basic requirements for effective management and reduction of loss and damage and describes a variety of tools are available to help vulnerable countries address exposure to loss and damage related to medium and macro-level risks and longer-term foreseeable risks.
Finally, the last section presents some elements needed for implementation of the options identified in the paper and calls for submissions from Parties and Stakeholders by 17 September 2012, for consideration at COP18.