Publications

WHAT DO WE HAVE TO LOSE?
UNDERSTANDING AND RESPONDING
TO CLIMATE-INDUCED LOSS OF
BIODIVERSITY AND
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES


BY MICHAI ROBERTSON, SHANDELLE STEADMAN, LAETITIA PETTINOTTI AND SARAH COLENBRANDER
31 / 10 / 2023
Image credit: Livestock and Climate Change by Piyaset – Shutterstock (published by ODI)

Loss and damage due to climate change extends far beyond what is easily quantified in economic terms. So-called ‘non-economic loss and damage’ – what the late Saleemul Huq called human and ecosystem losses – extend from our ways of life and cultural heritage to the ecosystem services and biodiversity that sustains us. This paper looks at loss and damage to our life and health, how climate change and health systems are bound together, the impacts these losses can have on us, and different methods of valuing and measuring losses. It then explores some of the possible responses to loss and damage like averting and minimising it - and how this overlaps with adaptation and other international systems like disaster risk reduction - as well as addressing it once it has happened.

Read the full paper here: