Loss and Damage in the Paris Agreement’s Transparency Framework

The 2015 Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) introduces a ‘transparency framework’, to promote accountability in the implementation of the Agreement. A set of “modalities, procedures and guidelines”, agreed upon in 2018, sketch how to put the transparency framework into practical operation. These “modalities, procedures and guidelines” include a voluntary provision to report information related to loss and damage (that is, the impacts of climate change to which the world cannot adapt). However, guidance is not yet available as to the specific information a country may want to report, or the types of evidence that could underpin the reporting.

Drawing on scientific journal articles and technical reports, this brief offers suggestions on the types of information a country may want to report, and the data that can be used to evidence claims made about loss and damage. Although these suggestions are no replacement for official guidance, they shed light on a number of central aspects associated with national-level reporting of information related to loss and damage. The paper will be particularly useful to developing country stakeholders who are responsible for reporting under the ‘transparency framework’. 

The full Policy Brief is available here: Loss and Damage in the Paris Agreement’s Transparency Framework [PDF]

Report authors: Daniel Puig and Fatemeh Bakhtiari (Technical University of Denmark, DTU), Elisa Calliari (University College London, UCL), Md. Fahad Hossain and Saleemul Huq (International Centre for Climate Change and Development, ICCCAD)