The United Nations and its subsidiary bodies are deep in conversation on finding the means and ways of mitigating climate change processes in order to avoid causing further damages and losses to humans and wildlife
By Salam Rajesh
The sixty-first session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held at Baku in Azerbaijan recently (11-16 November 2024), deliberated critically upon the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts.
The deliberations came up with overarching characteristics of aspirations that defined the concerns on loss and damage to lives and properties as fallout of climate change impacts, extreme weather events and other climate-related implications.
The summary of views on the overarching characteristics of aspirations focused on several aspects concerning the issue of loss and damage due to climate change impacts. The deliberation suggested providing a solid institutional framework for facilitating international cooperation, knowledge-sharing, technical assistance, and other action and support concerning loss and damage.
It suggested having an institutional mechanism for developing an overarching framework for providing strategic guidance and coordination about addressing Loss and Damage under the Convention (UNFCCC), and the Paris Agreement of 2015.
The Convention further urged for supporting Small Island Developing States, and Nations, that are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change in making better national and local policy action and channelling investment to the highest priority areas.
While encouraging the development and deployment of innovative approaches to addressing loss and damage, the Convention urged for demonstrating its ability to enhance action and support for addressing loss and damage, including by developing guidance, catalysing sharing of information, facilitating the mobilization of expertise, contributing to the Glasgow dialogue and catalysing provision of technical assistance.
The Convention while suggesting for the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) for Loss and Damage to serve as a platform for countries to share knowledge and best practices to inform policy and decision-making processes, urged for the formal recognition of the WIM as a global mechanism and of its legitimacy in bringing diverse experts and other stakeholders together to collaborate on matters relating to loss and damage.
The Convention further called for institutional capacity and convening power to mobilize a broad range of expertise, aimed at creating a community of knowledge and practice and bringing together the spectrum of actors and experts needed to deliver support and implement action for addressing loss and damage on the ground.
The concept of ‘Loss and Damage’ encompasses both climate change impacts and policy interventions to address these impacts, most notably under the UNFCCC, and is commonly referred to as the third pillar of climate action.
The first pillar is mitigation, which consists of avoiding or reducing greenhouse gas emissions to cap global warming below a certain level deemed “safe”. The world at large is deeply concerned on limiting global temperature rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030 in order to avoid ‘climate catastrophe’. Mitigation aims at tackling the root causes of climate change to limit its extent.
Adaptation, the second pillar, is a response to inefficient or insufficient mitigation. It involves adjusting practices or adopting new ones to cope with unavoidable risks posed by climate change. One fundamental response is to garner the support and active participation of Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in ecosystem restoration of forests and wetlands as a climate adaptation measure.
The dialogues on Loss and Damage as a policy response is meant to support communities, in specific the marginalized and the vulnerable, that suffer from harm inflicted by climate change and extreme weather events. In this sense, it can be viewed as an approach within the broader landscape of climate interventions, acknowledging that climate change is already affecting millions of people globally, and would only worsen in the future.
The Loss and Damage also refer to the adverse impacts of climate change that can take the form of “slow onset events” (such as ocean acidification or desertification) and “extreme weather events” (such as droughts, heat waves or cyclones). Scientists sometimes use the term “residual impacts” to describe Loss and Damage, meaning they are impacts which people have been unable to avert through mitigation and to which they cannot adapt.
The dialogues on Loss and Damage are often categorized into two categories, firstly, the economic losses and damages that are measurable impacts linked to diminished incomes, disruption of business operations, and destruction of infrastructure. It is estimated that between 1980 and 2019 vulnerable economies have lost a huge margin of around 525 billion US Dollar in aggregate terms as a result of climate change.
The second category is the non-economic losses and damages that include the loss of cultural heritage, biodiversity, territory, and human lives. Although they may appear less tangible and harder to quantify, they are no less detrimental according to climate impact observers.
The event of extreme weather events – cyclonic storms, wildfires, extreme droughts and heat waves – are seen as a process of the steadily increasing global temperature and the processes of change in the climatic conditions globally. These in their totality are causing extensive damages to properties and loss of human lives while also impacting hugely on the wildlife and other natural landscapes.
The United Nations and its subsidiary bodies are deep in conversation on finding the means and ways of mitigating climate change processes in order to avoid causing further damages and losses to humans and wildlife. Negotiations on fossil fuel use is facing a steep climb upwards with fossil fuel promoters’ lobby penetrating the highest levels of political and decision-making bodies.
The recent Conference of Parties (COPs) in different pockets of the globe are facing increasing criticism for avoiding serious talks on climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, even as the fossil fuel lobby is unrelenting in their efforts to keep their businesses running, regardless of the loss and damages they are committing to through the release of GHGs by their large scale commercial activities.
The push and pulls are there for certain, whereas, the UN’s thrust is to overcome the hurdles through such strategies as the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with climate change impacts in finding solutions to minimize the impacts in terms of loss of human lives, properties, the wildlife, the natural landscapes and seascapes.