Loss and Damage in the UN Climate Regime: Prospects for Paris

This article offers an overview of the two key outcomes of the 2015 Paris climate negotiations, the Paris cop decision, and the Paris Agreement. Collectively, they chart a new course for the un climate regime that started in earnest in Copenhagen in 2009. The Paris Agreement represents a path away from the top-down approach and rigid differentiation among parties reflected in the Kyoto Protocol, toward a bottom-up and flexible approach focused on collective long-term goals and principles. It represents an approach to reaching these long-term goals that is focused on self-differentiation, support, transparency, and review. The article highlights the key elements of the agreement reached in Paris, including its approach to mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage, finance, transparency, and compliance.

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The intractability of loss and damage issues in climate negotiations

Soundings ◽

10.3898/soun.78.02.2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 78 (78) ◽

pp. 38-49

Author(s):

Md Fahad Hossain ◽

Saleemul Huq ◽

Mizan R. Khan

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Low Income ◽

Low Income Countries ◽

Climate Regime ◽

Climate Negotiations ◽

Loss And Damage ◽

Recent Developments ◽

The Face ◽

History Of ◽

Key Issues

The impacts of human-induced climate change are manifested through losses and damages incurred due to the increasing frequency and intensity of climatic disasters all over the world. Low-income countries who have contributed the least in causing climate change, and have low financial capability, are the worst victims of this. However, since the inception of the international climate regime under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), loss and damage has been a politically charged issue. It took about two decades of pushing by the vulnerable developing countries for the agenda to formally anchor in the climate negotiations text. This was further solidified through establishment of the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) and inclusion of stand-alone Article 8 on loss and damage in the Paris Agreement. Its institutionalisation has only done the groundwork of addressing loss and damage however - the key issue of finance for loss and damage and other matters has remained largely unresolved to date – particularly since Article 8 does not have any provision for finance. This has been due to the climate change-causing wealthy developed nations' utter disregard for their formal obligations in the climate regime as well as their moral obligation. In this article, we tease out the central controversies that underpin the intractability of this agenda at the negotiations of the UNFCCC. We begin by giving a walk-through of the concept and history of loss and damage in the climate regime. Then we present a brief account of losses and damages occurring in the face of rising temperature, and highlight the key issues of contention, focusing on the more recent developments. Finally, we conclude by suggesting some way forward for the twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP26) taking place in Glasgow, UK in November 2021.

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Chapter I.50: Loss and damage in the UN climate regime

Elgar Encyclopedia of Environmental Law - Principles of Environmental Law ◽

10.4337/9781783477616.i.50 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 617-626

Author(s):

Meinhard Doelle

Keyword(s):

Climate Regime ◽

Loss And Damage

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Prospects for global climate policy in 2016

Emerald Expert Briefings ◽

10.1108/oxan-db206955 ◽

2015 ◽

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Developing Countries ◽

Climate Policy ◽

Global Climate ◽

Double Counting ◽

Climate Regime ◽

Emission Reductions ◽

Content Type ◽

Loss And Damage ◽

Political Controversy

Subject Prospects for global climate policy in 2016. Significance Collective efforts to respond to climate change, as in previous years, will prove a source of domestic and international political controversy, particularly as vulnerable states cope with climate-induced loss and damage in a post-COP21 global climate regime. Pledges made by countries themselves at the COP21 summit -- both for emission reductions and for financial contributions to support developing countries -- will draw international scrutiny to avoid backsliding or double-counting.

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CLIMATIC REGIME CHANGE IN THE ASIAN PACIFIC REGION, INDIAN AND SOUTHERN OCEANS AT THE END OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Proceedings of International Conference "Managinag risks to coastal regions and communities in a changinag world" (EMECS'11 - SeaCoasts XXVI) ◽

10.31519/conferencearticle_5b1b9475504153.46587602 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Vladimir Ponomarev ◽

Elena Dmitrieva ◽

Svetlana Shkorba ◽

...

Keyword(s):

20Th Century ◽

Regime Change ◽

World Ocean ◽

Boreal Summer ◽

Climate Regime ◽

Precipitation Decrease ◽

Recent Climate ◽

South Siberia ◽

Asian Pacific ◽

Southern Oceans

Multiple scale climate variability in Asia of temperate and high latitudes, Pacific, Indian and South Oceans, their features and linkages are studied by using statistical analyses of monthly mean time series of Hadley, Reynolds SST, surface net heat flux (Q), atmospheric pressure (SLP), air temperature (SAT) from NCEP NCAR reanalyses (1948-2015). Three multidecadal climatic regimes were revealed for the whole area studied by using cluster analyses via Principal Components of differences between values of Q, SLP, SAT in tropical and extratropical regions of the Asian Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans. The climate regime change in 70s of the 20th century in this area is confirmed by this method. It is also found that the climate regime is significantly changed at the end of the 20th century in both same area and World Ocean. The characteristic features of recent climate regime after 1996-1998 are SLP increase in the central extratropic area of Indian Ocean, North and South Pacific being prevailing in boreal winter. It is accompanying SLP increase and precipitation decrease in South Siberia and Mongolia prevailing in boreal summer. Inversed SLP and precipitation anomaly associated with increase of cyclone activity and extreme events in the land-ocean marginal zones including Southern Ocean, eastern Arctic, eastern Indian, western and eastern Pacific margins. It is known that low frequency PDO phase is also changed at the same time.

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