Integrating science for simultaneously addressing loss and damage from climate change and strengthening social protection

Bina Desai ^1* Peter Laderac ¹ Shalini Roy ² George Meddings ¹ Cecilia Costella ³ Nicolas Bidault ⁴ Ana Solórzano ⁴ Raramai Campbell ¹

• ¹ Alliance Bioversity and CIAT, Rome, Sicily, Italy
• ² International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States
• ³ University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands
• ⁴ World Food Programme, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Expanding social protection to at-risk communities in climate-vulnerable countries is proposed to become a core pillar of addressing loss and damage associated with climate change. Conceptual advances have been made but remain disconnected from realities: expanding the currently low coverage of social protection in climate-vulnerable countries will require significant additional resources, including from the newly set up Fund for Loss and Damage. However, the evidence base for resource allocation and programme delivery will have to become significantly stronger, and the required integrated science approaches and corresponding assessment tools are yet to be developed.Loss and damage derived from extreme weather events or slow-onset shockssuch as sea level rise, desertification, or ocean acidificationcan permanently alter socio-ecological systems. Affected communities will require support to transition to new livelihoods (1). Addressing these impacts requires efforts from a range of disciplines, political domains, and economic sectors. Accordingly, they require integrated approaches to social protection that simultaneously address environmental and social drivers and outcomes of loss and damage (2, 3). Social protection encompasses a range of policies and programmes that primarily aim to reduce individuals' poverty and vulnerability over the life course. Approaches have evolved over the past decade to combine and expand the key functions of social protection with climate risk management tools, including climate services, such as anticipatory action, early warning systems and social promotion (4). Yet, most of these social protection programmes are delivered through humanitarian or civil protection agencies and support relatively short-term protection objectives in the context of