The issue of loss and damage from climate change has been a very politically contentious issue in the international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) since its beginning. The reason is that developed countries did not want to acknowledge ‘loss and damage’, as they feared it would lead to claims of liability and compensation. Thus,for …

The morning of last Monday in Marrakech, Laurent Fabius, the Environment Minister of France, who was president of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) since last December, handed over the presidency to Hakima El Haite, the Environment Minister of Morocco. She has now taken over as President of COP22 here in Marrakech. This …

The Paris Agreement to tackle climate change which was achieved at the 21st Conference of Parties in Paris, France last December has been ratified by well over fifty-five countries accounting for over 55% of global emissions (the two thresholds that need to be achieved for the agreement to go into force as international law). It thus went into force on …

Climate change Loss and Damage has emerged as a key challenge of the 21st century. This Policy Brief first frames the challenge and then introduces the Resilience Academy, highlighting 5 key insights that both feed the debate and inform action. Finally, it provides 5 recommendations to the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM ExCom) for its 5-year work …

Earlier this month, the fifth Asia Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum was held in Colombo, Sir Lanka. This year’s theme was “Adapting and Living below 2C.” This is because the UN climate treaty — the Paris Agreement, which goes into force next week — set a upper temperature limit of 2C warming above pre-industrial temperatures. Given that Bangladesh is a …

This paper aims to raise awareness about Loss and Damage (L&D) and ignite conversation about how Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Loss & Damage (L&D) can be linked in order to ensure more sustainable strategies for building resilience in Pakistan. Example fallback content: This browser does not support PDFs. Please download the PDF to view it: …

(Originally published here) The Paris Agreement coming out of the Conference of Parties (COP) 21 negotiations gave breakthrough recognition to loss and damage, sorting through thorny discussions and politically charged negotiating positions. These positions revolved around liability and compensation, which developing countries called for but developed countries were unwilling to have included in the Agreement. The UN Framework Convention on …

(Originally published here) In exchange for including the ambitious target in the final text, developing nations are being pressured to never again mention “loss and damage.”   Entering the closing 48 hours of the global climate negotiations, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday that “we will not leave the most vulnerable nations among us to quite literally …

(This article originally published here) Earlier this month in Bonn, Germany, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held its last round of talks to prepare the text for the Climate Change Summit to be held in December in Paris, France to finalise a new Paris Agreement at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21).  The draft of the …

The idea of support for vulnerable countries that experience loss and damage (L&D) from climate change is nothing new, and countries have been proposing such an arrangement from the beginning of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations. Pressure to institutionalize a UNFCCC mechanism on L&D has increased in response to the shortcomings of mitigation policy and the …