Spotlighting the finance gap

The Paris Agreement recognises the importance of averting, minimising and addressing loss and damage (UNFCCC, 2016). Loss and Damage, the policy agenda established after COP19 is to address loss and damage, which is inextricably linked with progress on mitigation and adaptation. The greater those efforts, the less loss and damage there would be now and will be in the future. Unfortunately, loss and damage from climate change impacts is manifesting on the ground because of a lack of mitigation and a chronic underfunding of adaptation. To avert future loss and damage, mitigation efforts must be intensified and to minimise loss and damage support for adaptation - including finance, technology development and transfer and capacity building - must be significantly scaled up. However, it is also critical that Loss and Damage under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) focuses urgently on addressing economic and non-economic loss and damage, including in particular providing finance as a core means of implementation. This brief articulates why finance for addressing loss and damage is both distinct from and related to other types of finance including adaptation, humanitarian assistance, Official Development Assistance (ODA) and support for disaster risk management (DRM).