15/3/2013: Until the most recent meeting of parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Doha, Qatar, 'loss and damage' was a little-known phrase familiar to few outside climate and environment circles. But, after two weeks of intense pressure from developing nations, backed by civil society, the world's developed countries now have little option but to consider how to deal with irreparable losses and significant damage from climate change impacts.

A coalition of NGOs and civil society groups from nearly 50 organisations, 10 of them from Latin America, came together to demand action on the issue of climate change 'loss and damage' during December's Conference of Parties (COP 18) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Doha.

The vulnerability of poor people and the fragility of ecosystems being hit by the devastating impacts of climate change mean that significant losses and irreparable damage are already happening. Addressing these impacts requires clear solutions and scaled up commitment from the United Nations, and particularly from the developed world, the organisations said in a joint letter to Ministers attending the conference.

Cause for alarm: Climate impacts unfolding musch faster then expected
The letter, which received considerable attention from the media, warned that "the past 12 months have provided some of the starkest indicators that climate impacts are unfolding much faster than previously modeled. This year has seen an increasing number of severe floods and droughts and dramatic melting of Arctic sea ice - all cause for alarm."

The joint action worked. By the end of the Doha conference, Parties agreed to discuss the "institutional arrangements" needed to address the issue of climate change loss and damage. So, alongside the existing Adaptation Committee, which focuses on preparing communities to adapt to the impacts of climate change through such process as 'National Adaptation Planning' (NAPs), governments agreed there is also a clear need to face up to the dark scenario posed by global increasing emissions and past inaction.

New era of loss and damage from unvoidable climate impacts
This new era of "loss and damage" is already upon us. Now is the time for critical discussions about the permanent loss and damage resulting from unavoided and unavoidable climate impacts. That poor communities around the world are now facing the serious consequences of a huge problem they haven´t caused, points to - as the letter to Ministers proclaimed - the biggest social injustice of our time.

The battle has only just begun. Not only does the global community need to deliberate further on the framework and the institutional arrangements which accompany it; so too do new approaches on finance, compensation, rehabilitation and non-economic losses require detailed consideration.

Finance, compensation, and non-econmic losses require detailed consideration
We hope that the impacts being felt in the developed world, such as the severe losses and damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, which hit the Eastern coast of the USA in October, will help world leaders to understand what the climate crisis really looks like.

For that disaster, Obama requested USD 60 billion from Congress to cover the costs of reconstruction. One can only begin to wonder how much the rest of the world really needs.