Dr Moses Amweelo 

At the Conference of Parties, governments agreed to address loss and damage associated with climate change impacts. Christian Aid calls for the Conference of Parties (COP 19) to establish an international mechanism to address loss and damage and set the world towards a safe and climate-resilient future. In 1992, the world agreed to work together to limit climate change and support affected communities to cope safely with its impacts through an international treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 

But the climate agenda has not moved forward. 

In fact, governments have failed to commit to sufficient emissions cuts, with the result that projected warming is likely to exceed four degrees Celsius in this century. Nor have they adequately supported adaptation actions, with many vulnerable communities already suffering the adverse impacts of climate change. 

The emergence of loss and damage - and the increased focus on it as a distinct issue in the UNFCCC – is primarily a result of the failure to mitigate and the inadequate support for adaptation efforts. Loss and damage are at the end of a spectrum that includes mitigation and adaptation and are closely linked to both. 

The lower the collective mitigation effort, the greater investment and effort will be needed for climate adaptation. And where adaptation thresholds are passed or adaptation measures are not sufficient (either through lack of effort or physical limitations) to help communities withstand climatic changes, loss and damage ensue. 

Governments should recognise that people cannot choose between mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage. The lower the mitigation ambition, the higher the adaptation need. The lower the adaptation support available to help poor communities and countries or the more serious the limits to adaptation become from climate change, the more loss and damage ensue. 

Tackling climate change and coping with its impacts requires effort on all three issues. 

We must reorient the climate process towards climate risk prevention through stronger efforts on mitigation, and building of climate resilience through greater support for adaptation. But it is now also necessary to plan and prepare for the adverse impacts of climate change which we can no longer adapt to. There are already many adverse effects of climate change that can no longer be halted. Even if all emissions were cut to the required levels today, slow onset impacts will continue due to the level of committed warming already in the atmosphere. 

 Effects such as rising sea levels, salinisation of coastal aquifers, melting of glaciers and droughts in arid regions such as Namibia, are already being experienced disproportionately by the poor communities and countries of the world. And even more adverse effects are likely since the pledges currently agreed would still lead to an increase in global average temperatures far above the two degrees Celsius long-term global goal of the climate negotiations. 

There are also real limits to climate adaptation. When these limits are breached, the result will be irreparable damage to livelihoods and assets in many affected communities. In some cases, people will have to abandon their homes and migrate to search for alternative livelihood options. Rich countries that emit the bulk of the emissions causing climate change and loss and damage must provide financing and technology to help poor people and countries already suffering from these effects to rehabilitate their livelihoods, where possible, and where these have been irreparably damaged, to develop new ones. 

Governments have a legal responsibility to make reparations for this damage and support those countries and people who suffer loss and damage associated with the effects of climate change. Rich nations must ensure that the poor can protect themselves and secure their lives and assets from current and future climate-related hazards. 

 Christian Aid wants to move poor communities and poor countries beyond survival and subsistence, to develop sustainably, and to build their resilience to help them enjoy thriving and dignified lives. To bring about the efforts required to achieve this objective, we are calling for a three-pronged approach to tackling climate change. 

 An international agreement that addresses the climate crisis must contain the following three key elements: Mitigation: If catastrophic temperature rises are to be averted, all countries need to commit to ambitious emissions reductions based on their fair shares of effort determined by their historical responsibility and capacities. 

Adaptation and disaster risk reduction: Dramatic emissions cuts will not reverse the damage that has already been done, nor prevent the consequences to be felt in the coming decades due to already locked-in warming. Many communities are already having to learn to live with the consequences of climate change. Financing and provision of technological support by rich industrialised countries, most responsible for climate change, to vulnerable communities and countries, is therefore crucial. 

In many cases, this will require finance, technology and strategic support for adaptation and disaster risk reduction measures to help communities build resilience and withstand climate-related hazards. The last one is loss and damage, the establishment of a loss and damage mechanism to deal with impacts on poor communities and countries, which are unavoidable due to barriers and limits to adaptation and to finance practical measures to help the poorest and most vulnerable rebuild their lives and develop resilience to current and future climate hazards. 

*Dr Moses Amweelo is a former minister of works. He earned a doctorate in Technical Science, Industrial Engineering and Management from the International Transport Academy (St. Petersburg, Russia).