Loss and Damage from climate change: legacies from Glasgow and Sharm el-Sheikh

Conferences of the UN climate change convention have legacies both in formal outcomes and treaties and in raising the profile of emerging climate dilemmas. The joint legacies of COP26 in Glasgow and COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh have been in elevating the profile and formalising the potential for solidaristic action on ‘Loss and Damage’ from climate change. This article reviews the documented outcomes on Loss and Damage from the two events to analyse the significance and constraints of this element of the overall climate change regime. Loss and Damage is likely to be constrained as a global collective action by the capacity to identify and measure losses and damages and by the ability of the climate change regime to deliver on meaningful resource transfers. Yet the formalisation of elements of climate justice through Loss and Damage is a real and lasting legacy of these COP events.