Loss & Damage: Avoiding a Climate Frontier

Loss-and-damage (L&D) is one of the most critical and urgent issues to address regarding the climate crisis. The impacts and risks of this crisis are becoming increasingly past the current capacities of mitigation and adaptation, placing millions of lives in short and long-term danger.

The urgency of addressing L&D has been recognized through the perspectives of science, faith, and governance. Scientists worldwide have consistently warned the world of the shrinking window to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid even more destructive climate change impacts that lead to more L&D. With half of the global population considered as highly-vulnerable, the stakes keep getting higher every passing year.

In recognition of this reality, developing countries like the Philippines have been championing scaling up L&D-related solutions, which culminated in the milestone decision at the 2022 UN climate negotiations to establish funding arrangements against L&D. Yet implementing this decision will be entirely different from making it.

On the 10th year since the landfall of super-typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, it is timely for Filipino civil society and community representatives to reflect on the lessons learned from the catastrophe, the challenges they continue to face due to the climate crisis, and what must be done to further enable the Philippines to avert and/or minimize L&D at the national and local levels.