Saleemul Huq, one of the most persistent long-term advocates of a ‘loss and damage’ fund on climate change, explores the origins and potential of the breakthrough at the recent COP. For thirty years the vulnerable developing countries led by the small island states had been demanding under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) the creation of a fund …

COP27 ended a day overtime on November 20 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt with the historic achievement of a new fund for addressing loss and damage in vulnerable developing countries. Today, I want to tell the story of how this was achieved. The demand for rich countries to shoulder their responsibility for historic pollution – which has raised the global temperature …

Launch of Loss & Damage Forum, on 17 November 2022 15:15 – 16:15 (EGY) at LLA Pavilion (Area C). The Loss and Damage Forum (LDF) which is a collaborative platform and virtual workspace where resources and tools are shared among a group of practitioners, researchers and decision makers across the world, with a prime focus of connecting local to global, …

‘Amplifying local voices: from loss and damage to local climate solutions’ organized by ICCCAD and SSN, on 16 November 2022 11am-12pm at Resilience Hub (Area C). The session will showcase local experiences, voices and perspectives through storytelling, media and representation from local spokespersons. The side event is expected to serve as a learning and exchange platform that brings together local civil …

ACT2025 Official Side Event ‘Beyond dialogue to Action & Support to avert, minimize and address loss and damage’ today, 10th November from 16.45 – 18.15 (EGY | GMT+2) at Room Amon (150), Blue Zone. With loss and damage being a major agenda in the UNFCCC negotiations and beyond, the Allied for Climate Transformation by 2025 (ACT2025) consortium aims to bring together negotiators and L&D actors from countries which have …

COP after COP, the global climate action community or the ‘Conference of Parties’ as it is officially called, has made endless efforts to define, measure, and attribute Loss and Damage. From Agreement to Protocol, from Mechanism and Network to Conference and Declaration to Dialogue1, we have been only discussing and asserting the need for climate action. Even the science2 of …

The upcoming talks must agree to set up a funding facility to help countries deal with the growing harm caused by climate change impacts It has now been 30 years since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1972 – and we are about to hold …

People in Burigoalini and Gabura Unions frequently face climate-related hazards. Adequate adaptation measures to these hazards are often missing, causing losses and damages. This paper focuses on non-economic losses and damages: items that are not commonly traded in markets (such as the loss of biodiversity or cultural heritage). The non-economic losses and damages that people in Burigoalini and Gabura Unions …

Among the three strategies for addressing climate change – mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage (L&D) – the latter two continue to suffer from interpretational ambiguities. Adaptation does not have an agreed definition under the climate regime. Loss and damage is not yet considered as a third strategy by developed countries. But developing countries don’t agree. Under the Paris Agreement, …

Over the last few weeks, a number of developments around the world has brought forth the need to hold polluters responsible for the loss and damage they have been causing the planet. The latest such event is the devastating floods in Pakistan, which has been scientifically attributed to human-induced climate change. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the floods “climate …