By: Staff Writer
June 7, 2024
A new climate report was presented at the Bonn Climate Conference (SB60) in Germany this week presents new methods for assessing loss and damage due to climate change.
The report, “A review of loss and damage in the Caribbean (1994 to 2024),” stated that it does not present a total figure on the amount of loss and damage during the time period, but simply just identified the “complexities,” of the issue in an attempt to “highlight the opportunities and challenges in attempting to capture the extent of loss and damage being faced in the region.”
The report is the first to provide a systematic overview of how Caribbean countries are framing and reporting on loss and damage through a comprehensive review of national documents submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention (UNFCCC) over the last thirty years.
The report also said: “In the absence of an agreed definition of Loss and Damage in the UN Climate process Parties to the Paris Agreement have taken different approaches to how loss and damage is understood. In the Caribbean, loss and damage is largely framed as a climate justice issue, understanding climate change and its impacts as deeply embedded in politics and ethics.
“It is widely recognised that SIDS have contributed very little to global emissions but face disproportionate impacts and risks of climate change. The IPCC (2022) finds that historical contributions to the emissions that drive climate change vary substantially across regions, with SIDS contributing only 0.5% of total emissions between 1850 and 2019.”
It added: “SIDS are among those most impacted by climate change and most at risk to its future impacts. These realities and scientific consensus have underpinned the framing of loss and damage as a significant justice and equity issue – one that has its origins beyond the borders of the region but that has existential implications for the Caribbean, where there is limited capacity to resist or recover from escalating impacts of climate change.”
This makes imperative the proper framing of loss and damage because “rather than it as a national issue that should be addressed with disaster risk reduction approaches and which would then place the financial onus on national governments, SIDS of the Caribbean frame loss and damage as an international issue, highlighting the international causes of loss and damage and thus the need for international policy and financial frameworks.”
The report also said: “However, assessment of disaster-related loss and damage also faces challenges including the unavailability of historical data that can support attribution studies, limited abilities to conduct attribution studies at national or regional research institutions, limited capacities to conduct assessments after every climate-related event, limited capacities to capture loss and damage affecting particular social groups and in more remote locations, and lack of methodologies or support to assess the long-term impacts of extreme events.
“These challenges are exacerbated when assessing loss and damage associated with slow-onset events. In many countries, there is no ongoing data collection on hazards such as sea level rise or ocean acidification. While there may be scientific studies that capture impacts at a particular time, there is limited capacity or financial support that would allow for monitoring and assessment of loss and damage associated with slow-onset events.”
The report ultimately recommended, firstly, a common regional approach for assessing loss and damage for the Caribbean would help to define a common definition and assessment methodology which considers the national circumstances, needs and priorities in Caribbean SIDS and will enable a more balanced and accurate estimation of loss and damage impacts and loss and damage response measures needed. Presently, there are methodological challenges in assessing loss and damage from climate-related extreme events and slow-onset events.
Secondly, it also said that countries need to Invest into efforts to estimate activity costs for addressing loss and damage and third to develop national plans or programmes to address loss and damage.
Fourthly, it recommended that countries should encourage the reporting of loss and damage financing needs under the UNFCCC’s Enhanced Transparency Framework.
Lastly, implement climate budget tagging and tracking in fiscal planning.