Submission of the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance (ZFRA) on the outcome of the review of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage.

Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance (ZFRA)

Background

Over the past decade, debate on Loss and Damage – the negative climate-related impacts and risks that vulnerable people and communities cannot cope with or adapt to – has become an increasing focus of negotiations under the UNFCCC. To guide an appropriate global response the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) on Loss and Damage was established and has been operational since November 2013. The WIM is currently being reviewed with the report to be submitted at COP25.

The WIM review will shape the debate about Loss and Damage for the next period. In order to ensure that the work of the WIM, which is governed by an Executive Committee, is responding to the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable, the review must strengthen and enhance action that is aligned with the needs of the most vulnerable and those already facing climate Loss and Damage. In response, the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance expects that the review of the WIM at COP 25 will:

Key Asks

Increase investment in ex ante risk reduction; transitioning from a predominantly ex-post and reactive approach to investing in measures to avert and minimise Loss and Damage must not be separate from development; it must not be either-or but a matter of risk-informed decision making and development gains that do not create but avoid the creation of new risk. Investing in resilience is economically sound and needs to be radically increased to reverse the trend of increasing socio-economic impacts and risks associated with climate-related disaster events.

Identify practical ways to fill the Loss and Damage finance gap; Extreme weather (e.g. storms, floods and heatwaves) already cause an average of $92 billion in total losses in developing countries each year with severe implications for Loss and Damage. This excludes slow onset events, which are predicted to increase with recent modelling for developing countries indicating losses ranging from USD 116–435 billion in 2020, rising to USD 290–580 billion in 2030. This is indicative of a growing funding gap that is in addition to the climate finance already committed. In addition to identification of new sources for Loss and Damage finance the WIM also needs to identify mechanisms to ensure this funding reaches the local actors and the people on the front lines of climate Loss and Damage.

Increase public finance through identifying and tapping into new sources outside of aid budgets; More private sector investment is needed but will not be enough in itself. Public finance is essential to provide adequate and predictable support to those who need it the most – especially those who may be poorly connected to markets, or whose resilience depends on basic essential services. More work is needed to access existing financial mechanisms as well as exploring new and innovative sources to plug the finance gap; one option would be to explore integration of Loss and Damage finance into the GCF.

Beyond insurance; For measures to address Loss and Damage, insurance is a key component in which there has been some progress under the WIM, but we must recognise that this is inadequate in scale to meet the growing need. As a mechanism, unless insurance is directly linked to resilience, it alone may not reach the poorest and those most affected by the irreversible impacts of climate change. The insurance industry has a key role to play to support this and must be engaged directly.

Ensure an inclusive international process to respond to the growing challenge; Provide guidance to ensure that the expert groups, committees and sub-groups convened to work on specific issues are inclusive, transparent, open to all and are accountable for delivering on their mandate; this includes bringing in the private sector, civil society and researchers among others to strengthen representation, technical competency, accountability and scientific validity.

Operational progress is made on critical Loss and Damage issues; In regards to progress on operational issues the WIM review should prioritise action and support to vulnerable people and countries in the following areas:

The development of common tools, methodologies and guidelines for assessing Loss and Damage at the local scale with requisite guidance for aggregating local insight to national level reporting (NDC, NAP);

Develop effective financing mechanisms that ensure funding is delivered where it is needed the most, to the local level, the point at which Loss and Damage has the greatest impact;

Consider supporting transformational approaches for managing risks and building resilience to bolster coping and adaptive capacities of those facing and already experiencing Loss and Damage; transformational could mean advancing directly to carbon-free energy and decoupling economic growth and stability from carbon emissions that considers long-term risk and opportunity;

Identify appropriate approaches for monitoring and reporting (M&R) on action in response to Loss and Damage, including M&R for climate Loss and Damage impacts at multiple scales; as well as M&R on the means of implementation delivered including, finance, technology development and transfer and capacity building.

Outcome of the Review

The review should result in clear and operational recommendations on how the WIM and its executive committee should be strengthened under each of the challenges outlined above.

The report should include specific recommendations for enhancing the coordination, collaboration and accountability of the work of the WIM executive committee. Ensure the operations of the WIM and its executive committee are transparent and open and ensure that the WIM works with other bodies, organizations and expert groups, in coherence with its catalytic mandate to guide the implementation of approaches to avert, minimise and address Loss and Damage.

The Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance (ZFRA) is a multi-sectoral partnership which brings together community programmes, new research, shared knowledge and evidence-based influencing to build community flood resilience in developed and developing countries. We help people measure their resilience to floods and identify appropriate solutions before disaster strikes. Our vision is that floods should have no negative impact on people’s ability to thrive. To achieve this, we are working to increase funding for flood resilience; strengthen global, national and subnational policies; and improve flood resilience practice. Find out more: www.floodresilience.net

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https://www.rosalux.de/en/publication/id/39802/climate-and-gen-der-justice