An ‘Islands’ COP’? Loss and damage at COP23

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12255
• Published date: 01 November 2018
• Date: 01 November 2018

REGULAR ARTICLE

An ‘Islands’COP’? Loss and damage at COP23

Lisa Benjamin

|

Adelle Thomas

|

Rueanna Haynes

Correspondence

Emails: lisa.benjamin@bsg.ox.ac.uk;

lrb1973@yahoo.co.uk

The summer of 2017 can be characterized as the ‘summer of loss and damage’for Carib-

bean small island developing States (SIDS) and other vulnerable countries. High‐profile

extreme events such as Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated the Caribbean region.

The summer saw some of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic

hurricane season. The impacts of loss and damage have developmental impacts as they

can lead to death, insecure livelihoods, conflict, degradation of natural resources, and

can compound existing developmental vulnerabilities and negate prior development

gains. As a result, loss and damage is jeopardizing existing development gains in vulner-

able countries, leading to what the authors call an unvirtuous cycle of climate‐induced

erosion of development and resilience in these States. The 23rd Conference of the Parties

(COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and related

meetings providedan opportunity to focus on island States andtheir climate‐related vul-

nerability. Giventhe highly topical nature of loss and damage in 2017,it was anticipated

that significant movement on loss and damage would occur. However, as a result of the

sensitive and political nature of the issue of loss and damage, and evolving negotiation

dynamics, only incremental and procedural progress was made by negotiators on this

front, perhaps understandably given the restrictions of the Paris Agreement and its

related COP decision. The three key ‘asks’of developing countries on this topic were

not addressed by theCOP decision. As a result, SIDS may be leftwith limited options to

fund and cope withincreasingly debilitating impacts of loss and damage.

1

|

INTRODUCTION

The summer of 2017 can be characterized as the ‘summer of loss and

damage’for Caribbean small island developing States (SIDS) and other

vulnerable countries. High‐profile extreme events such as Hurricanes

Irma and Maria devastated the Caribbean region. Dominica experi-

enced losses of approximately US$1.3 billion, or 224percent of its

gross domestic product (GDP), with significant losses in the housing

and tourism sectors.

1

Climate change has led to increased sea surface

temperatures, higher sea levels and increased precipitation intensity,

which all contribute to stronger tropical cyclones and a resultant

increase in impacts.

2

Loss and damage have significant implications for

vulnerable countries. As recent events have illustrated, loss and damage

can lead to death, insecure livelihoods, conflict, degradation of natural

resources, and can compound existing developmental vulnerabilities and

negate prior development gains. As a result, loss and damage is jeopar-

dizing existing development gains in vulnerable countries, leading to

what some of us have called an ‘unvirtuous cycle of climate‐induced

erosion of development and resilience’in these States (see Figure 1).

3

As the first Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to be hosted

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

1

World Bank, ‘A 360 Degree Look at Dominica Post Hurricane Maria’(28 November 2017)

˂http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2017/11/28/a-360-degree-look-at-dominica-

post-hurricane-maria˃.

2

G Holland and C Bruyere, ‘Recent Intense Hurricane Response to Global Climate Change’

(2014) 42 Climate Dynamics 617, 625.

3

L Benjamin and A Thomas, ‘Climate Change Impacts and Research in the Caribbean: Con-

straints, Opportunities and the Role of Tertiary Institutions’in W Leal Filho and R Leal‐

Arcas (eds), University Initiatives in Climate Change: Mitigation and Adaptation (Springer

2019) 131, 136.

DOI: 10.1111/reel.12255

332

|

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/reel RECIEL. 2018;27:332–340.