Loss and damage
Loss and damage refers to adverse climate-related effects that are not avoided through mitigation and cannot be fully prevented through adaptation. Applying Loss and damage requires a stated affected people, rights, value-chain tier, geography, remedy, and distribution of benefits or harms.
In simple terms
In practical use, Loss and damage refers to adverse climate-related effects that are not avoided through mitigation and cannot be fully prevented through adaptation. For Loss and damage, assessment should identify the driver, exposure, affected people or assets, likelihood, consequence, and available response within a declared affected people, rights, value-chain tier, geography, remedy, and distribution of benefits or harms. The term covers economic and non-economic effects and does not imply that every effect has one agreed valuation or finance mechanism. Loss and damage connects with Climate justice and Human rights impact assessment; each can affect its application without sharing its definition. The candidate link between Loss and damage and Modern slavery statement remains a separate expansion question supported here by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Why it matters
Loss and damage matters because decisions about it determine which workers or communities are visible, what rights or harms are assessed, and where prevention or remedy is assigned. A defensible use of Loss and damage therefore exposes its boundary, method, evidence, responsible actor, and uncertainty before a conclusion is accepted. That discipline keeps Climate justice and Human rights impact assessment from being treated as proof of Loss and damage when their criteria, scope, or results differ.
Example
A procurement and human-rights team evaluates Loss and damage for a defined decision and records the relevant affected people, rights, value-chain tier, geography, remedy, and distribution of benefits or harms. For Loss and damage, the team uses cited material from United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to identify the exposure, affected people or assets, and available response, documenting the period, data, assumptions, and comparison with Climate justice. It treats Human rights impact assessment and Modern slavery statement as separate questions rather than proxies for Loss and damage.
How it differs
Climate justice
Loss and damage is a issue or risk; Climate justice has a different function. Evidence for Climate justice does not establish Loss and damage unless both sets of applicable criteria are met.