The Systemic Risk and Resilience Group provides evidence-based contributions to the Loss and Damage policy discourse. Loss and Damage broadly refers to international support for climate impacts and risks that are unavoided and linked to unavoidable increases in climate hazards in particularly vulnerable developing countries. After years of slow progress, Loss and Damage is now a fast-moving area of climate policy. New funding arrangements, including the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) were agreed at UNFCCC's COP27 and operationalised at COP28. The Santiago Network for technical support has been set up and operationalised as well.
NEW: IIASA & CMCC policy insight for COP29 on “Understanding and quantifying the Loss and Damage policy space.”
IIASA Research on Loss and Damage has made several relevant contributions that informed these breakthroughs in climate policy These include a first stocktake book on the issue with more than a million access times currently (Mechler et al., 2019), a policy forum in Science (Mechler and Schinko, 2016), various other publications, including on politics and governance (Calliari and Ryder, 2023), finance (Mechler and Deubelli, 2021), quantification of needs (Tavoni et al., 2024), synthesis in IPCC 6th assessment report (New et al., 2022) as well as co-leading a Flood Resilience Alliance Flagship Report on the topic (Mechler et al., 2023).
IIASA researchers are participating as experts in UNFCCC's Technical Expert group on Comprehensive Risk Management and a SYRR researcher is negotiating this item for the EU.
IIASA research covers various thematic lines, including
- Conceptualizing the policy space for Loss and Damage;
- Understanding existential risk and limits of adaptation;
- Assessing and quantifying country needs;
- Research on the politics and institutional dimensions of the debate;
- Articulation of principles and definitions of Loss and Damage including ethical and normative issues central to the discourse (e.g., attribution, liability and responsibility).
The IIASA initiative stands ready to further tackle these issues and questions over the coming years in order to provide continued actionable, research-based input to Loss and Damage deliberations.
Relevant Publications
Tavoni, M., Andreoni, P, Calcaterra, M., Calliari, E., Deubelli, T. , Mechler, R. , Hochrainer-Stigler, S. & Wenz, L. (2024). Economic quantification of Loss and Damage funding needs. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment 10.1038/s43017-024-00565-7.
Hochrainer-Stigler, S., Mechler, R. , Deubelli, T. , Calliari, E., & Sakic Trogrlic, R. (2024). A gap approach for preventing stress in complex systems: managing natural hazard induced fiscal risks under a changing climate. Frontiers in Sustainable Resource Management 3 10.3389/fsrma.2024.1393667.
Calliari, E. & Ryder, B. (2023). What Does Loss and Damage Mean at the Country Level? A Global Mapping Through Nationally Determined Contributions. Global Environmental Politics 23 (3) 71-94. 10.1162/glep_a_00725.
Vanhala, L., Calliari, E., & Thomas, A. (2023). Understanding the Politics and Governance of Climate Change Loss and Damage. Global Environmental Politics 23 (3) 1-11. 10.1162/glep_e_00735
Mechler, R., McQuistan, C. & Rosen Jacobson, B. (2023). Falling through the gaps: how global failures to address the climate crisis are leading to increased losses and damages. Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance
New, M., Reckien, D., Viner, D., Adler, C., Cheong, S.-M., Conde, C., Constable, A., de Perez, E., Lammel, A., Mechler, R. , Orlove, B. & Solecki, W. (2022). Decision Making Options for Managing Risk. In: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Eds. Pörtner, H.-O., Roberts, D.C., Tignor, M., Poloczanska, E.S., Mintenbeck, K., Alegria, A., Craig, M., Langsdorf, S., Löschke, S., Möller, V. et al., pp. 2539-2654 Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781009325844.026.
Deubelli, T.M. & Mechler, R. (2021). Perspectives on transformational change in climate risk management and adaptation. Environmental Research Letters 16, e053002. 10.1088/1748-9326/abd42d.
Mechler, R. & Deubelli, T. (2021). A policy framework for Loss and Damage finance. IIASA Policy Brief. Laxenburg, Austria: PB-32
Mechler, R. & Deubelli, T. (2021). Finance for Loss and Damage: a comprehensive risk analytical approach. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 50, 185-196. 10.1016/j.cosust.2021.03.012.
Mechler, R. & Deubelli, T.M. (2021). Finance for Loss and Damage: a comprehensive risk analytical approach. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 50, 185-196 [pure.iiasa.ac.at/17239]
Mechler, R., Bouwer, L., Schinko, T., Surminski, S., Linnerooth-Bayer, J. (eds) (2019). Loss and Damage from Climate Change. Concepts, Methods and Policy Options. Springer: Cham.
Schinko T & Mechler R (2017). Applying Recent Insights From Climate Risk Management to Operationalize the Loss and Damage Mechanism. Ecological Economics 136: 296-298. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.02.008.
Mechler, R. (2017). Climate policy: Transparency for Loss and Damage. Nature Climate Change 7, 687–688
Mechler, R. & Schinko, T. (2016). Identifying the policy space for climate loss and damage. Science 354 (6310), 290-292