Loss and Damage Finance
Why developing countries demand compensation for climate impacts they did not cause, and the fraught politics of who pays.
Beyond Adaptation
Loss and damage refers to the climate impacts that go beyond what adaptation can address -- losses that are irreversible or too severe to prevent. A Pacific island nation losing territory to rising seas cannot adapt its way out of inundation. A farmer whose crops fail repeatedly due to drought reaches a limit beyond which no adaptation suffices. Cultural heritage, biodiversity, and human lives lost to climate-fueled disasters are gone permanently.
For developing countries, loss and damage is a matter of justice. The nations most affected by climate change -- small island states, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia -- contributed minimally to the emissions causing it. The richest 10% of the global population produces roughly 50% of emissions. The poorest 50% produces just 12%. Demanding compensation from those who caused the problem for those who suffer its consequences seems straightforward -- but wealthy nations have resisted for three decades.
