Worried over climate-induced losses, India seeks global plan

NEW DELHI: With devastation caused by extreme weather events like heavy rains and cyclone — including the Kerala floods of 2017-18 — as the backdrop, India on Tuesday urged the global community to come up with a plan to address the issue of climate-induced ‘loss and damage’.

The country also pointed out that the ‘loss and damage’ is not only an issue for small island nations, but also a critical issue in large countries like India which has a long coastline with numerous islands and coastal cities and Himalayan states which are at the risk of glacier outbreaks.

The matter was discussed here in a national workshop on ‘loss and damage’ in India, organised by the Union environment ministry, which deliberated on how to assess, minimise and address climate-related losses.

Addressing the workshop, Union environment secretary C K Mishra underlined the three critical elements for addressing the issue of ‘loss and damage’, including risk reduction through more plantation, risk retention and risk transfer through insurance and funding mechanism.

The small island nations and other least developed countries have long been demanding ‘loss and damage’ compensation, arguing that they have become vulnerable due to climate change which is caused by polluting practices of developed nations post-industrialisation.

Though global communities have been discussing the issue of ‘loss and damage’ as part of the Warsaw International Mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) since 2013, it has so far not got traction in terms of providing compensation to vulnerable nations under a formal procedure.