Editing IPCC:AR6/SR15/Chapter-5 (section)

====== Contributing Authors ======

* Karen Paiva Henrique (Brazil)
* Saleemul Huq (United Kingdom, Bangladesh)
* Rachel James (United Kingdom)
* Adelle Thomas (The Bahamas)
* Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh (Netherlands)

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'''Introduction'''

Residual climate-related risks, limits to adaptation, and loss and damage (see Glossary) are increasingly assessed in the scientific literature (van der Geest and Warner, 2015; Boyd et al., 2017; Mechler et al., 2019) <sup>[[#fn:r50|50]]</sup> . The AR5 (IPCC, 2013; Oppenheimer et al., 2014) <sup>[[#fn:r51|51]]</sup> documented impacts that have been detected and attributed to climate change, projected increasing climate-related risks with continued global warming, and recognized barriers and limits to adaptation. It recognized that adaptation is constrained by biophysical, institutional, financial, social and cultural factors, and that the interaction of these factors with climate change can lead to soft adaptation limits (adaptive actions currently not available) and hard adaptation limits (adaptive actions appear infeasible leading to unavoidable impacts) (Klein et al., 2014) <sup>[[#fn:r52|52]]</sup> .

'''Loss and damage: concepts and perspectives'''

‘Loss and Damage’ (L&amp;D) has been discussed in international climate negotiations for three decades (INC, 1991; Calliari, 2016; Vanhala and Hestbaek, 2016) <sup>[[#fn:r53|53]]</sup> . A work programme on L&amp;D was established as part of the Cancun Adaptation Framework in 2010 supporting developing countries particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts (UNFCCC, 2011) <sup>[[#fn:r54|54]]</sup> . In 2013, the Conference of the Parties (COP) 19 established the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (WIM) as a formal part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) architecture (UNFCCC, 2014) <sup>[[#fn:r55|55]]</sup> . It acknowledges that L&amp;D ‘includes, and in some cases involves more than, that which can be reduced by adaptation’ (UNFCCC, 2014) <sup>[[#fn:r56|56]]</sup> . The Paris Agreement recognized ‘the importance of averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change’ through Article 8 (UNFCCC, 2015) <sup>[[#fn:r57|57]]</sup> .

There is no one definition of L&amp;D in climate policy, and analysis of policy documents and stakeholder views has demonstrated ambiguity (Vanhala and Hestbaek, 2016; Boyd et al., 2017) <sup>[[#fn:r58|58]]</sup> . UNFCCC documents suggest that L&amp;D is associated with adverse impacts of climate change on human and natural systems, including impacts from extreme events and slow-onset processes (UNFCCC, 2011b, 2014, 2015) <sup>[[#fn:r59|59]]</sup> . Some documents focus on impacts in developing or particularly vulnerable countries (UNFCCC, 2011b, 2014) <sup>[[#fn:r60|60]]</sup> . They refer to economic (loss of assets and crops) and non-economic (biodiversity, culture, health) impacts, the latter also being an action area under the WIM workplan, and irreversible and permanent loss and damage. Lack of clarity of what the term addresses (avoidance through adaptation and mitigation, unavoidable losses, climate risk management, existential risk) was expressed among stakeholders, with further disagreement ensuing about what constitutes anthropogenic climate change ''versus'' natural climate variability (Boyd et al., 2017) <sup>[[#fn:r61|61]]</sup> .

'''Limits to adaptation and residual risks'''

The AR5 described adaptation limits as points beyond which actors’ objectives are compromised by intolerable risks threatening key objectives such as good health or broad levels of well-being, thus requiring transformative adaptation for overcoming soft limits (see Chapter 4, Sections 4.2.2.3, 4.5.3 and Cross-Chapter Box 9, Section 5.3.1) (Dow et al., 2013; Klein et al., 2014) <sup>[[#fn:r62|62]]</sup> . The AR5 WGII risk tables, based on expert judgment, depicted the potential for, and the limits of, additional adaptation to reduce risk. Near-term (2030–2040) risks can be used as a proxy for 1.5°C warming by the end of the century and compared to longer-term (2080–2100) risks associated with an approximate 2°C warming. Building on the AR5 risk approach, Cross-Chapter Box 12, Figure 1 provides a stylised application example to poverty and inequality.

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