What is loss and damage?
Over the coming days and weeks BCN News will file stories about how loss and damage looks like for different people from different countries of the Pacific.
Elena Vaá of Magiagi, Apia stands on the foundation of her home destroyed during Cyclone Evan in 2012. She and her family remain on their land despite the risks
This explainer is written using information summary provided by Dr Neeraj Shankar for SPREP. The reporter was flown to Apia, Samoa by the Secretariat of the Pacific Environment Programme (SPREP) to learn more about loss and damage and to help amplify the stories from the Pacific.
Loss and damages are the harms caused by climate change that cannot be adapted to by communities, ecosystems and countries. Loss and damage according to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) refers to the irreversible consequences of climate change that surpass the adaptive capabilities of communities, ecosystems and nations.
The two categories of loss and damage are economic loss and damage and non-economic loss and damage. Examples of economic loss and damage include irreparable infrastructure damage such as destruction of critical infrastructure like homes, roads, schools that cannot be rebuilt or replaced with available resources.
Another form of economic loss and damage is the long term or irreversible declines in key sectors like agriculture, fisheries or tourism due to climate change which leads to permanent livelihood disruption.
Financial overburden is another form of loss and damage suffered by countries when recovery costs exceed local or national financial capacities leading to debt or dependence on external aid.
The non-economic loss and damage include the loss of traditional practices, languages, or sacred sites due to displacement or environmental degradation. Bio-diversity loss is when permanent extinction of species or collapse of ecosystems critical to community identity and sustenance.
Another non-economic loss and damage are the health and social impacts such as the physical and mental declines, such as trauma from displacement or increased disease prevalence post-disasters.
Displacement and identity loss is a non-economic loss and damage when forced relocation leads to fractured community ties and diminished cultural identity.
The examples of loss and damage may be different for Pacific island nations but the realities of connection to land, culture and identity are what binds the islands as a regional block and strengthens their commitment to amplify the Pacific voice in the global conversation about climate change.
Over the coming days and weeks BCN News will file stories about how loss and damage looks like for different people from different countries of the Pacific. This week journalists from around the region are at Apia in Samoa learning about loss and damage so the information relayed through the news and media programmes are accurate.
