The excellent second event in a series of two from Chatham House's The Environment and Society Discussion Series focusing on a deep dive into constructive solutions and progress made to address loss and damage.

Loss and damage refers to harms and destruction caused by climate change impacts that cannot be avoided through mitigation or adaptation. While it has gained increasing recognition in international climate change negotiations, turning the concept of loss and damage into tangible action for climate-vulnerable countries has been contentious.

Loss and damage is interwoven with issues of fairness and equity. The issue is highly disputed due to its connection with the historical responsibility of developed countries in causing climate change, as well as associated calls for compensation from developing countries.

At COP26, Scotland became the first government to pledge funds for loss and damage for countries in the Global South. However, most climate-vulnerable countries left disappointed by the failure of the Glasgow Climate Pact to secure the establishment of a dedicated loss and damage financing facility.

Developing countries have made it clear that they will continue to push for a new financing facility in the Glasgow Dialogue, a set of international discussions on loss and damage kicking off in June. The Environment and Society Discussion Series is hosting two events on loss and damage ahead of that date.

Participants:

Colin McQuistan, Head of Climate & Resilience, Practical Action

Linnéa Nordlander, Post-Doctorate Fellow, University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Law

Laura Schäfer, Senior Advisor – Climate Risk Management, Germanwatch

Zoha Shawoo, Associate Scientist, Stockholm Environment Institute

Chair: Cynthia Liao, Schwarzman Academy Fellow, Africa Programme, Chatham

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