Climate risks are escalating around the world. Now new hazards like heat are adding new forms of death and destruction. Simply cutting greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to our new climate is no longer an option. Many of the losses and damages that we see today are sadly now unavoidable.
With loss and damage now such a big deal, we think it’s important that developing countries especially those most impacted include it in their country climate plans.
What exactly is loss and damage?
At its most basic, losses and damages are the tangible impacts of climate disasters and their cost.
Losses and damages are not only financial, they can be physical and cultural losses too. Disasters can also result in severe health and wellbeing impacts from deaths, traumas and other psycho-social consequences. This makes the actual impacts difficult to measure and quantify. For example, a farmer whose crops wither away in a drought has a direct income loss. Whereas a bridge that collapses during a hurricane is a physical loss with many indirect consequences—until the bridge is repaired it could prevent members of the community from reaching markets to sell produce, make access to healthcare more difficult, or stop children from getting to school.
In some places the impacts of climate change are destroying historical and cultural heritage or altering people’s culture and traditional way of life. Many Small Island States are at risk of disappearing completely under the sea. Irretrievable losses such as these are impossible to put a price tag on.
Loss and damage includes unavoidable and irreversible climate impacts and should be monitored to understand the scale and inform climate action planning to ensure global and national climate action is targeted and is most beneficial to people and nature.
Country climate plans
National climate action plans are known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Through these, countries communicate their work towards climate related targets for emission reductions and other measures defined in the Paris Agreement. This international treaty was adopted by 196 countries in 2015, and it outlines how countries plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
In every country the NDC process needs to be transparent, inclusive and bottom-up, including the latest available scientific data and predictions. The process should be inclusive and respectful of human rights. This means engaging a variety of stakeholders across the environment, agriculture, transport, water, social welfare, gender equality, disaster preparedness and response sectors.
Every country needs to do its fair share. But as each country is different—with varying circumstances, resources, and abilities—they decide on their targets and contributions to the universal goal.
Many NDCs highlight how the changing climate will affect their country and how they plan to adapt to these changes. Taken as a whole, the NDCs add up to a global commitment towards meeting the aims of the Paris Agreement.
Many of the communities we work with at Practical Action are severely affected by climate change and vulnerable to a wide range of impacts and losses. For example, in early 2025, heavy rains devastated parts of Bolivia which only a few months previously saw wildfires tearing through indigenous farms . In the arid region of Turkana in Kenya, smallholder farmers face the opposite challenge; years of very little rainfall have led to severe droughts which result in food shortages and the loss of livestock that many depend on to make a living.
