By Teo Ormond-Skeaping, Loss and Damage Collaboration’s Advocacy, Outreach and Communications Lead, UK

With the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicting extreme heat across the country from April to June as the escalating climate crisis increases the frequency and intensity of heatwaves, this article looks at what needs to be done at the international level to ensure that developing countries like India, and the vulnerable communities within them, have what they need to address the loss and damage that extreme heat and other climate intensified events are causing.

What is Loss and Damage?

The technical term given to the unavoided or unavoidable devastation that is being caused by higher global temperatures resulting from human-induced climate change is “loss and damage”. The “loss” of loss and damage refers to things that are lost permanently to the climate crisis. For example, the human and animal lives lost during a climate change intensified heatwave. The “damage” of loss and damage refers to things that have been affected by the climate crisis but can be restored. For example, the impacts to physical health and the loss of school and work days during climate change intensified periods of extreme heat. Whereas “Loss and Damage” (uppercase “L” and “D”) is used to describe the policies and plans that are used to address loss and damage, such as those that are negotiated at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). For over 30 years, action on Loss and Damage has been obfuscated, delayed, and denied by the developed countries most responsible for the climate crisis. However, a historic agreement to establish a Loss and Damage Fund was finally reached at COP27 in Egypt, and following a year-long process under a Transitional Committee, the Fund has now been operationalised.

Averting, Minimising and Addressing Loss and Damage

To deal with loss and damage from climate change we need to take action across all three pillars of climate action. Mitigation is the first line of defence against future climate impacts and the best way to avoid (avert) loss and damage. By limiting global heating to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels —which can be achieved by rapidly reducing carbon emissions through a just transition to a phase-out of fossil fuels— we will decrease the amount of loss and damage that will happen in the future. In the context of extreme heat, limiting warming to 1.5°C would stop the frequency and intensity of heatwaves reaching a point where hundreds of thousands of lives could be lost during a single extreme heat event in a world that is 2.5°C or warmer.

The second line of defence is adaptation, which involves preparing communities and infrastructure for climate impacts. In the case of extreme heat this could include reducing heat islands in cities through the introduction of trees and vegetation, ensuring that there are publicly accessible cool spaces, being prepared to take lessons online when temperatures become too hot for children to come to school, and by helping people to diversify livelihoods to avoid working outside during extreme heat events. Adaptation, therefore helps reduce (minimise) the loss and damage being caused by the climate crisis.

However, not all loss and damage can be averted or minimised and therefore we also need to address loss and damage. In the context of heatwaves, addressing loss and damage could involve compensating for lost livestock, crops, and work days, as well as providing health care and mental health care for those impacted by extreme heat.

What Needs to Happen on Loss and Damage in 2024?

In 2024, several significant Loss and Damage processes are underway within the UNFCCC climate negotiations. Here are three key areas where progress must be made to ensure that loss and damage caused by extreme heat can be addressed.

1. The full operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund and scaled-up pledges:

Although the Loss and Damage Fund was operationalised at COP28 and pledges totaling  $661 million USD were made, the Fund is still not able to release money when an extreme heat event causes loss and damage. With the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund came the establishment of the Board of the Loss and Damage Fund. In 2024 the Board is tasked with making the Fund fully operational. This will involve ensuring that the World Bank —which was selected as the interim host of the Funds secretariat after much push back from developing countries and civil society— is willing and able to host the Fund whilst meeting a criteria set in the COP28 decision which include ensuring that countries and communities on the front lines of the climate crisis have direct access to funds. Other tasks for the Board include deciding on access modalities —for example civil society has called for a small grants window accessible to grassroots organisations— resource allocation, and environmental and social safeguards. In order for the Loss and Damage Fund to become fully operational by COP29 so that it can disperse money shortly afterwards, the World Bank needs to agree to host the Fund and provide the hosting agreement and related documentation ready for the Board to approve and sign in mid August. We also need to see the pledges made at COP28 turned into contributions to the Fund and pledges hugely scaled up. Although very welcome, the $661 million USD pledged at COP28 is just a drop in the ocean compared to what developing countries actually need to address loss and damage each year which is estimated to be $400 billion USD a year throughout the 2020s. For example, in 2022 alone, the quantifiable economic cost in developing countries of extreme events like cyclones and floods was greater than $100 billion. A number which does not include more difficult-to-quantify extreme events like heatwaves and related non-economic loss and damage such as the loss of education when schools are forced to close due to heatwaves. It is also important to recognise that developing countries have indicated that they expect the Fund to be able to programme $100 billion USD a year. With this in mind, the $661 million USD pledged at COP28 would account for less than 1% of what developing countries expect ($100 billion USD) and less than 0.2% of the actual needs of developing countries ($400 billion USD). Therefore, to really address the loss and damage at the scale required by developing countries, the Fund will need to encourage contributions in the billions and not millions of dollars.

2. A Loss and Damage sub-goal under the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance.

The New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) is set to be agreed at COP29 in 2024. This goal will supersede the US$100 billion target agreed in 2009 at COP15 for mitigation and adaptation and should be informed by the needs and priorities of developing countries. To ensure that the Loss and Damage Fund is filled on a regular basis with the $400 billion USD that developing countries need, Loss and Damage must be included in the NCQG in 2024 as a separate Loss and Damage finance sub-goal.

The US$100 billion per year goal set in 2009 was not based on science or the actual needs of countries and communities on the front lines of the climate crisis and is therefore woefully inadequate. To ensure that finance is delivered at the scale of the needs of developing countries the NCQG must be guided by science —including the latest IPCC AR6 report— and the loss and damage needs of front-line communities, including those hit by extreme heat events. A minimum of US $400bn a year must therefore be considered for the Loss and Damage sub-goal of the NCQG and this amount must increase as the climate crisis escalates.

3. The full operationalisation of the Santiago network for Loss and Damage

The Santiago Network was established at COP 25 in Madrid as part of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (WIM) under the UNFCCC with the objective of “catalysing technical assistance of relevant organisations, bodies, networks and experts (OBNEs), for the implementation of relevant approaches for averting, minimise and addressing loss and damage at the local, national and regional level, in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.”

What that means in practice is that the SNLD is intended to ensure that countries and communities experiencing loss and damage —including those facing extreme heat— are able to access local and/or regional support to better understand what loss and damage they face, how it can be averted, minimised and addressed, and what funding, policies and action will be required.

In the case of heatwaves, this could include working with regional OBNEs to assess where loss and damage could occur during a heatwave, working with technical experts on policies to avert, minimise and address loss and damage that are context specific and taking into account the needs, priorities, and rights of impacted communities. It would also include working with the support of OBNEs to assess the loss and damage costs of an extreme heat event to make a request for money from the Loss and Damage Fund.

In 2024, the newly established Advisory Board of the Santiago Network is working to fully operationalise the SNLD and to begin to respond to requests for technical assistance. To get the Santiago Network to deliver with the speed and efficiency the escalating climate crisis requires, the Advisory Board needs to ensure that a Director is appointed for the SNLD, and that the SNLD’s secretariat can make use of regional and subregional UN offices in all UN geographical regions so that no region is left behind, and they will also need to ensure that the $48.5 million USD in Pledges made to the SNLD are delivered and that further pledges are forthcoming. To complement this, the Advisory Board also needs to review and approve the guidelines for managing funding provided for technical assistance.

Communities Impacted by Extreme Heat Cannot Wait Any Longer.

Having faced 30 years of delays due to the delay tactics of developed countries, communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis—including those facing heatwaves—  have been left to pick up the bill for loss and damage caused by the climate crisis. Now that there is a Loss and Damage Fund and a Santiago Network for Loss and Damage in place, 2024 must be the year that urgently needed Loss and Damage finance and technical assistance finally reaches people on the ground. To meet the scale of the needs of developing countries, 2024 must also see an NCQG agreement that delivers the trillions needed in climate finance for the full spectrum of climate action, including a sub-goal on Loss and Damage.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this piece are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of AIDMI.