14 March, 2016

The Warsaw International Mechanism - what has happened until now and what are the next big steps?

Authors

The second meeting of the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impact (Excom) took place from 2 to 5 February 2016 in Bonn, Germany.

Critical issues discussed relate in particular to the suitability of available instruments, in particular disaster risk management and reduction, to address the impacts resulting from anthropogenic climate change. An important background to keep in mind in this context is that disaster risk management, as captured in the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction, is explicitly a matter of national responsibility. The extent to which loss and damage associated with anthropogenic climate change will be responded to internationally is an open question.

Loss and damage

Publications

The 1.5°C limit and risks of overshoot

This briefing looks at what the 1.5°C limit means in terms of adaptation and loss and damage for the most vulnerable countries and regions. It finds that slowing down warming is critical to buy us time to adapt and also to avoid irreversible loss and damage. Even if warming rises above 1.5°C (overshoot) we can bring it down again with ambitious emissions reductions.

Le seuil de +1,5°C et le risque de dépassement de ce seuil

Ce rapport examine ce que la limite de 1,5 °C signifie en termes d'adaptation et de pertes et dommages pour les pays et régions les plus vulnérables. Il constate qu'il est essentiel de ralentir le réchauffement pour nous donner le temps de nous adapter et pour éviter des pertes et des dommages irréversibles. Même si le réchauffement dépasse 1,5 °C, nous pouvons le faire baisser à nouveau en réduisant les émissions de manière ambitieuse.

Climate justice and loss and damage: perspectives from the global south

This article outlines the loss and damage debate through a climate justice lens with particular emphasis on Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries. It examines the latest developments of the new loss and damage fund including operationalisation.

Carbon majors’ trillion dollar damages

In this report we explore who could pay for loss and damage through the lens of responsibility for historic emissions, and the financial gains generated from selling oil and gas.

Coastal loss and damage for small islands

This commentary on a paper in Nature Sustainability reviews how the study quantifies the impacts of sea-level rise on small island states and estimates the impacts in terms of cost, land loss and population exposure across all small islands worldwide.

The effects of political knowledge use by developing country negotiators in Loss and Damage negotiations

This article traces how developing country negotiators used knowledge to further their interests in loss and damage negotiations from 2003 to 2013.

Risks of synchronised low yields are underestimated in climate and crop model projections

This study finds that the jet stream – air currents in the upper atmosphere – can synchronise extreme weather caused by climate change, resulting in crop failures in multiple countries at the same time.

Research agenda for the loss and damage fund

This piece in Nature discusses what research could contribute to the design of the loss and damage fund.

Houses built on the mountains just outside of Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Climate justice and loss and damage: Hurricane Dorian, Haitians and human rights

Haitian communities were the locus of the majority of deaths and missing people attributed to the 2019 Hurricane Dorian and faced a series of distributional, procedural and recognition injustices. We investigate the historical factors and contemporary conditions of Haitian communities in The Bahamas that resulted in significant inequities, disproportional impacts and infractions of human rights.

Boat, beach, building in Arnos Vale, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines by Winston Chen

Assessment of adaptation potentials in the context of climate change: the case of tropical cyclones in the Caribbean

This report looks into the application of a natural catastrophe model that calculates climate risk and potential of adaptation in the Caribbean.

Loss and damage implications of sea-level rise on Small Island Developing States

This review assesses the regional nature of sea-level rise for Small Island Developing States, highlights associated impacts and risks, and reviews limits to adaptation and resultant economic and non-economic loss and damage.

Making sense of the politics in the climate change loss & damage debate

This article looks at the politics of loss and damage and inquires into negotiators' perceptions of the most contentious issues surrounding loss and damage negotiations.

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