Ahead of the 27th UN Conference of Parties (COP) to be held in Cairo, Egypt, in November 2022, there were growing demands for a ‘loss and damage’ (L&D) finance facility under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Experts tag COP27 as the first climate summit in “the era of loss and damage.”
“Loss and damage occurs when the frequency and intensity of existing climate impacts increases to such an extent that countries and communities are not equipped to handle it. Their capacity to prepare, cope, recover, recoup or rebuild is no longer there,” said Ritu Bharadwaj, principal researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development.
For example, Odisha in eastern India frequently witnesses cyclones from the Bay of Bengal, where sea surface temperatures have risen and are likely to increase by 2.0°C -3.5°C by 2100. The state faces sea level rise, intense cyclones, ocean acidification, storm surges, and so on. This cascades into impacts on, among other things, monsoon activity, losses in fisheries and agriculture, damages to coastal infrastructure.
In her work, Ritu Bharadwajhas found that when livelihoods based on agriculture and fishery are destroyed in Kendrapara in Odisha, people without a social safety net undertake distress migration and end up in situations like trafficking.