Loss and damage in developing countries: Impacts, evidence and what next

As manifested through recent climatic events in different countries across the world, loss and damage from climate change is a real and increasing threat to the most vulnerable communities, particularly in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). However, due to its highly political nature, the topic, despite being a question of survival for the vulnerable countries, has not made much progress in the climate negotiations, particularly on the issue of finance.

As known, adaptation finance is inadequate by orders of magnitude; the rationale for having a dedicated financing mechanism on loss and damage needs to be strengthened. Review of the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM), the key body under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that deals with loss and damage took place at the 25th Conference of the Parties (COP25) to the UNFCCC held in Madrid, Spain. However, parties failed to adopt a decision on how to make the case for financing loss and damage.

Against this backdrop, with an aim to strengthen the LDC position on loss and damage, as a part of the Open Society Foundation (OSF) supported project titled ‘Support to Least Developed Countries on Loss and Damage’, the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) commissioned six country case studies on loss and damage from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Malawi, and Uganda. The case studies were done by researchers from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) Universities Consortium on Climate Change (LUCCC), an official capacity building of the LDC governments, of which ICCCAD is the secretariat. 

Moderated by Prof Mizan R Khan, deputy director of ICCCAD and program director of LUCCC, researchers shared insights into how their countries are facing losses and damages due to the impacts of climate change, the challenges in addressing them, and their expectations at COP26. Losses and damages, both economic and non-economic are strongly evident in these vulnerable LDCs.

A lecturer at the Royal University of Bhutan, Ugyen Yangchen’s presentation on loss and damage in Bhutan illustrated the best case of how LDCs face injustice due to climate change. Despite sequestering three times more Carbon dioxide than its emissions, the agriculture, forestry, and hydropower-dependent economy of the mountainous country face losses and damages. 

Very recently they saw an excessive amount of rainfall that led to the destruction of crops, mainly paddy. All other LDC economies also predominantly rely on climate-sensitive sectors. For example, in Ethiopia, the agriculture sector contributes 34.8% to the country’s GDP and employs about 72.7% of its population.

Source: Dhaka Tribute