WIM (Warsaw International Mechanism)

The Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts (WIM) was established at COP19 in Warsaw in November 2013. It is the principal UNFCCC vehicle for addressing loss and damage — the harms from climate change that go beyond what adaptation can prevent, including both sudden-onset events (cyclones, floods) and slow-onset processes (sea-level rise, desertification, glacial retreat, salinization).

The WIM has three stated functions:

• Enhancing knowledge and understanding of comprehensive risk-management approaches.
• Strengthening dialogue, coordination, coherence and synergies among relevant stakeholders.
• Enhancing action and support, including finance, technology and capacity-building, to address loss and damage.

It is governed by an Executive Committee (ExCom) that reports annually to the UNFCCC subsidiary bodies and to the COP. The ExCom operates through expert working groups on slow-onset events, non-economic losses, displacement, comprehensive risk management, and action and support.

The Paris Agreement gave loss and damage its own dedicated provision in Article 8, which anchors the WIM within the Agreement. However, the COP21 decision text (paragraph 51 of decision 1/CP.21) explicitly states that Article 8 "does not involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation" — a politically critical caveat insisted on by developed countries.

The WIM later spawned the Santiago Network (agreed at COP25 in Madrid, 2019) to catalyse technical assistance for developing countries. At COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh (2022), parties went further and agreed to establish a dedicated Loss and Damage Fund, operationalized at COP28 in Dubai (2023) with initial pledges of roughly US$700 million. The WIM remains the institutional backbone for knowledge and coordination, while the new fund handles financing.

For MUN delegates, WIM debates typically pit the G77+China and AOSIS (pushing for stronger finance and recognition of historical responsibility) against developed-country blocs wary of liability language.