CAN Submission: Loss and Damage, August 2011

 

Cancun has rightly brought to the forefront an inconvenient truth of climate change, the question of loss and damage associated with climate change impacts including those impacts that cannot be avoided through mitigation and that also go beyond the limits of adaptation. Already emitted emissions expose developing countries to profound climate change impacts such as increase in frequency, intensity and occurrence of extreme weather events and slow-onset impacts such as rising sea-level, coastal erosions, desertification, ocean acidification, biodiversity loss, loss in arable land or glacier melt. This underlines the historic responsibility of industrialized countries, from where the major share of emissions originate. In wake of existing mitigation actions that feature a significant gap in emission reduction to be consistent with a 2^° C let alone 1.5^° C pathway and that rather commit humanity to a 2.5 to 5^° C degrees world, it is high time for Parties to address the consequences of loss & damage, in parallel with stepping up their mitigation ambition.

For this reason, the Cancun Adaptation Framework contains establishes a work programme to explore relevant approaches for developing countries.

This submission lays out CAN’s views on the aim, structure, content and different means of the programme.

––
Download file: http://CAN_submission_loss_and_damage__Aug2011.pdf