Climate Loss and Damage: Its Concern and the Role of Compensation

Abstract

Climate change causes economic and non-economic losses and damages. Not all of these losses and damages are easily monetarized (perhaps some cannot be at all) and it is not at all clear how loss and damage approaches can be distinguished from adaptation measures. This makes Loss and Damage (L&D) a much contested concept. From a more theoretical and normative perspective it is challenging that according to the decisions to the Paris Agreement the most appealing theoretical frameworks of liability and compensation are ruled out. According to these decisions, the article of the Paris Agreement addressing L&D “does not involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation”. Research on L&D faces at least two challenges this panel aims to address. First, this panel aims to clarify what exactly is the specific concern of L&D in contrast to mitigation and adaptation. Second, it addresses the role issues of compensation should play despite the fact that the decisions to the Paris Agreement preclude any liability and compensation. Both these challenges make empirical as well as theoretical investigations necessary. The first challenge not only calls for defining the conceptual space and the relevant principles of responsibility for L&D. It also demands to better understand the origins of L&D in international climate politics and how it became part of the Paris Agreement. The second challenge makes it necessary to better understand the theoretical concepts of liability and compensation. However, theoretical understanding needs to consider the political decisions made and how they shift possibilities to conceptualize liability and compensation.