Urgency brews to foreground loss and damage at COP27

Subject : Environment

Section: Climate change

The progress in establishing a Loss and Damage Finance Facility (LDFF) has been slow over the years, but experts say that the UNFCCC COP27 this year might be different, as the Glasgow Dialogue has initiated important conversations on loss and damage.
Vulnerable communities in the least developed countries, small island nations and developing countries, increasingly face climate impacts that are too severe to adapt to. They are now demanding a separate financial facility to meet the loss and damage caused by climate change.
An important fund established within the framework of the UNFCCC, is the Green Climate Fund (GCF). It was created to support the efforts of developing countries, meet the challenges of climate change.
India specifically, has the National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC), to meet the cost of adaptation to climate change. The projects sanctioned under the NAFCC, address many ‘mitigation’ and ‘adaptation’ challenges. However, these also don’t address the need for funds in case of events that go beyond the scope of adaptation.

Loss and Damage

The term loss and damage is used within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process to refer to the harms caused by anthropogenic (human-generated) climate change.
The appropriate response to loss and damage has been disputed since the UNFCCC’s adoption. Establishing liability and compensation for loss and damage has been a long-standing goal for vulnerable and developing countries in the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and the Least Developed Countries Group in negotiations.

Warshaw International Mechanism at COP19 (November 2013) in Warsaw, Poland.

The present UNFCCC loss and damage mechanism, the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage, focuses on research and dialogue rather than liability or compensation. Its functions are
Strengthening dialogue, coordination, coherence and synergies among relevant stakeholders
Enhancing knowledge and understanding of comprehensive risk management approaches to address loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including slow onset impacts

Santiago Network

The vision of the Santiago Network is to catalyze the technical assistance of relevant organizations, bodies, networks and experts, for the implementation of relevant approaches for averting, minimize and addressing L&D at the local, national and regional level, in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change
Parties established the Santiago network as part of the WIM at COP 25 in Madrid, Spain

Green Climate Fund (GCF)

The GCF was set up in 2010 under the UNFCCC’s financial mechanism to channel funding from developed countries to developing countries to allow them to mitigate climate change and also adapt to disruptions arising from a changing climate.
The Green Climate Fund will support projects, programmes, policies and other activities in developing country Parties using thematic funding windows.
It is intended to be the centrepiece of efforts to raise Climate Finance of $100 billion a year by 2020.
The Fund is governed and supervised by a Board that will have full responsibility for funding decisions and that receives the guidance of the Conference of Parties (COP).

National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC)

Under NAFCC 100% central grant is provided to the State Governments for implementing climate change adaptation projects.
The Scheme has been designed to fulfill the objectives of National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) and operationalize the State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCCs).
The objective of the fund is to assist states/UTs that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change in meeting the cost of adaptation.
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is the National Implementing Entity (NIE) responsible for implementation of adaptation projects under the NAFCC.
Under this scheme, Union Government encourages States to come up with innovative and scalable projects to develop resilience against climate change and mainstream it in the planning processes.