Assessing and managing loss and damage: Local-level evidence to inform global-level action in Gujarat State, India

The impacts of climate change that are not avoided through adaptation are referred to as loss and damage.  The costs of economic loss and damage have been estimated at several hundred billion US dollars per annum.  Although these estimates have been cited as being comprehensive across world regions and hazards, they are not, due to both data gaps and uncertainties about future climate change impacts.  Comprehensive local-level estimates, expressed as a function of varying degrees of adaptation, can be comparatively more useful to understand the economics of climate change-driven economic and non-economic loss and damage. Although a global-level assessment of losses and damages remains elusive, local-level assessments can be most useful alternatives.

Objectives and Outputs

The main objective is to develop a framework that cities can use to accurately assess their Loss and Damage from climate change, and be able to plan for adaptations that are contextually suited for the region. Such city-level frameworks can help fill the gaps of national and state-level loss & damage management plans, by providing a systematic approach to account for local contexts. A careful and comprehensive economic and non-economic assessment of loss & damage will help cities, states, and countries to better present a case for funding disaster response and recovery and support the development of holistic adaptation plans for equitable resilience development. The project will establish a methodology to facilitate a nuanced approach to quantify and understand Loss and Damage – both economic as well as non-economic.

Primary expected output is a methodology for loss and damage assessment prepared and tested.