Exploring Loss and Damage at the International Climate Change Talks

In recent years, there has been a growing need to address loss and damage as a result of climate change through international processes. At the most recent November 2013 international climate change talks in Warsaw, 194 countries negotiated the best way to establish institutional arrangements for loss and damage under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Such a decision to establish these arrangements was made in 2012 in Doha in a decision known as the “Doha Gateway.” While the 19th (2013) Conference of the Parties succeeded in delivering the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage Associated with Climate Change Impacts, there was concern by some negotiators earlier into the conference that this would never transpire given the staunch disagreements between countries and lobbying blocks on a way forward. This article provides a brief historical overview of loss and damage at the climate change talks, and examines the key discourses defining this issue between 2011 and 2013 by analyzing submissions by lobbying blocks and member countries, and final negotiated texts. These discourses revolve around causality and solutions, compensation, and the relationship between loss and damage and adaptation.