In the past few months ICCCAD has participated in numerous international meetings and workshops regarding Loss and Damage. Most of these meetings were focused on enhancing knowledge on the subject of Loss and Damage both regionally and globally.
The Asia Pacific Network (APN) organized a three-day workshop on “Climate Change Adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction and Loss and Damage” on 21-23 August 2013 in Kobe, Japan. Anna Hassemann and Erin Roberts represented ICCCAD at the workshop and presented an overview of Loss and Damage in the opening session. The main purpose of the meeting was to determine the focus of the research call on Climate Change Adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction and Loss and Damage. During the workshop there were focused break out sessions to discuss the research needs in the region and how the call would address these needs. The main issues emphasized in the workshop were climate change concepts such as extreme weather events and slow onset events and their associated economic and non-economic loss and damage, the existing approaches to address loss and damage, local and regional perspectives on disaster risk and reduction and adaptation policies. The lessons learned from current practices in addressing loss and damage was also reviewed.
The second was a conference on “Adaptation and Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change in the Asia Pacific Region: Integrating Scientific Aspects”, which was organized by the Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) in Bangkok, Thailand on 30-31 August 2013. Key researchers working on the topic both globally and regionally joined together for a discussion in this conference. Dr.Saleemul Huq, Anna Hasemann and Erin Roberts participated in the event. The key objective of this meeting was to share scientific knowledge and information in order to enable policymakers to maker more scientifically aware decisions. The meeting provided a stage for scientists, policy makers, community organizations and the general public to exchange knowledge and address various important questions related to loss and damage. The main ideas discussed in this meeting focused on the importance of addressing loss and damage and the scientific understanding of loss and damage. Other issues such as the extreme events and lessons for loss and damage, understanding and tackling slow onset impacts and the role of community organizations were also evaluated in this meeting.
In September 2013, Erin Roberts attended the “expert meeting to consider future needs, including capacity needs associated with possible approaches to address slow onset events”. The meeting took place in Nadi, Fiji and went on for two days from 12-14 September 2013. On the first day the meeting began by updating the participants about the implementation of the work programme to date, including the findings from the previous expert meetings. The workshop then discuss the current approaches to addressing different types of slow onset events and their possible impacts, climate resilient development, effects on food security and slow onset events at a national level. The institutions outside of the convention process were also reviewed in order to understand future needs. The main focus of the meeting on the second day was various country perspectives on the role of regional and international support in making arrangements to address future needs related to Loss and Damage. For more focused discussions the participants were divided into breakout groups to consider possible responses to future needs, including capacity needs associated with possible approaches to address slow onset events. Later on, the updates from the discussions conducted in the breakout group sessions were collected.
In future the L&D programme will host a workshop at the Bellagio Centre in Lake Cuomo Italy to facilitate a discussion on Loss and Damage in preparation for the upcoming COP-19, which is to take place in Warsaw this November.
Written by: Shababa Haque, Intern, ICCCAD November Newsletter 2013
