What are the most important results?
Disproportionate losses and damages from climate change affecting certain groups and places is a central element in L&D policy discussions, but the concept of disproportionality has so far been treated mainly implicitly in research on loss and damage.
Further work is needed, methodologically and empirically, to capture how losses and damages, inequities, and injustices manifests across scales, not only at national level
Further work is needed, methodologically and empirically, to capture how losses and damages, inequities, and injustices manifests across scales, not only at national level.
Grounded research on the reality of loss, normative principles and responsibility can help further the field and address the growing gap between L&D policy and science on loss and damage.
What is novel with this specific research?
The harmful effects of climate change on people, societies and the environment are already being felt around the world; these are generally referred to as loss and damage. They represent temporary or permanent harms that can be material including loss of income or property, or immaterial such as decreased mental health, and loss of species, cultural heritage, and knowledge. Climate change related risks and impacts often exacerbate social and economic inequities, sometimes to the extreme, and much research highlights that certain groups and countries are or will be disproportionately affected by loss and damage.
In this review, we bring together research in several disciplines to take stock of current knowledge and highlight key gaps on disproportionate effects in the context of loss and damage from climate change. Our results point to a growing disconnect between Loss and Damage (L&D) in the policy context and the science on loss and damage, which looks at how people experience loss in different contexts. While the latter focuses heavily on justice and equity, the former mainly revolves around risks framings.
The review provides an overview of how climate-related harm, inequities and injustices can happen at different scales (e.g., individual, group, nation). It also shows that while the field is advancing there are still critical gaps in our knowledge on loss and damage, specifically in relation to the role of development, political economy, compound events and climate risks, and different people’s understandings of normative principles and responsibility.
How can it progress the field of L&D?
Disproportionality in loss and damage from climate change is fundamentally about equity and justice and revolves around the question of responsibility: those who have contributed the least to the problem are also the ones that will experience the worst of its effects.
Too often however, much of the loss and damage discussions have centred on national divisions. Certain groups in both “developed” and “developing” nations alike are suffering from a greater burden of climate change related harms and will continue to do so.
Alliances between researchers, civil society actors, and policymakers that go beyond the classic developing versus developed divide - can also provide fruitful avenues for climate action.
Alliances between researchers, civil society actors, and policymakers that go beyond the classic developing versus developed divide - can also provide fruitful avenues for climate action.
In this paper, we argue that research on loss and damage could benefit from engaging more meaningfully, both methodologically and empirically, with the concept of disproportionality by building upon work in other fields of research and practice such as environmental justice. This would not only support progress in the field of L&D but also more broadly science and policy intersecting climate change, development, and inequality.
What could be practical implications of the research?
Current policy mechanisms under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) such as the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts, largely prioritize those most at risk or affected. A deeper understanding of extreme forms of inequities such as disproportionality in the context of loss and damage would align with such objectives and contribute to ensuring support is directed to those who are most in need.
Finally, a more rigorous research agenda around disproportionate effects in loss and damage could provide evidence for advocacy work by civil society organizations to push for greater recognition of different forms of experiences loss and damage and compensation.
Download the research article: A critical review of disproportionality in loss and damage from climate change. It is published in Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change.
