About this Research Topic
As the human-induced climate crisis worsens, losses and damages escalate, with each new event breaking previous records. Scientific evidence shows such risks will continue to increase (IPCC, 2021; NASA, 2023). Moreover, the ongoing mitigation and adaptation efforts are insufficient, and vulnerable communities and natural ecosystems are fast reaching their adaptation limits (OECD, 2021; IPCC, 2022). Women, girls, disabled, the poor and other disadvantaged groups in the Global South are hit the hardest. The 2023 UN agreement to establish a new Loss and Damage (L&D) Fund has provided a glimmer of hope, but progress has been slow in operationalizing the Fund. There needs to be more clarity on the moral, political, and technical foundations for L&D action and financing to reach the most climate-vulnerable groups. As the third pillar of global climate action, L&D needs critical analytical contributions to address these gaps and challenges.
Numerous pressing issues surround L&D, including conceptualizing it in relation to existing efforts, avoiding past failures of climate finance, delivering finance in data and institutionally weak contexts, minimizing losses for vulnerable groups, promoting gender equity and inclusive resilience, and designing financing to address structural vulnerability. Anticipatory analysis of how these issues can be overcome would be a significant contribution.
There is also a need to build the capacity of vulnerable countries to access and mobilize L&D finance, ensure transparency and accountability, and integrate L&D finance within national systems. It is unclear how the vulnerable countries localize and institutionalize multiple climate commitment streams to benefit the most vulnerable groups. Research is needed to identify best practices for fund tracking and public participation, and lessons from local climate finance delivery can be valuable. Incorporating climate finance within national systems promotes coherence and sustainability, and there is much to learn from ongoing efforts in development finance, disaster management, community resilience, and inclusive governance. As the L&D discourse moves from policy to practice, research into real-time processes on the ground can contribute to conceptualization, policy framing, and translation of L&D financing idea into practice.
We invite contributions in the form of research articles, case studies, policy analysis, and literature reviews on intersecting dimensions of vulnerability, climate losses and damages, and the prospect of transformation. Papers should take an interdisciplinary approach and may focus on one or more of these aspects: governance, adaptation, risk, resilience, institutional dynamics, climate finance, political economy, public policy, community empowerment, gender inclusion, multilevel governance, innovation, and planning.
We anticipate novel framing of problems and research emphasis based on recent research within the scope of the topic. Papers can focus on theoretical, conceptual, policy, or methodological exploration. Case study-focused papers can be single case or multiple cases. Each paper must provide a clear introduction to the issue or question being addressed, links to relevant literature, and the methodology used. Discussion and conclusions should spell out evidence-based insights for policy and action. We expect papers from the Global South Context.
Numerous pressing issues surround L&D, including conceptualizing it in relation to existing efforts, avoiding past failures of climate finance, delivering finance in data and institutionally weak contexts, minimizing losses for vulnerable groups, promoting gender equity and inclusive resilience, and designing financing to address structural vulnerability. Anticipatory analysis of how these issues can be overcome would be a significant contribution.
There is also a need to build the capacity of vulnerable countries to access and mobilize L&D finance, ensure transparency and accountability, and integrate L&D finance within national systems. It is unclear how the vulnerable countries localize and institutionalize multiple climate commitment streams to benefit the most vulnerable groups. Research is needed to identify best practices for fund tracking and public participation, and lessons from local climate finance delivery can be valuable. Incorporating climate finance within national systems promotes coherence and sustainability, and there is much to learn from ongoing efforts in development finance, disaster management, community resilience, and inclusive governance. As the L&D discourse moves from policy to practice, research into real-time processes on the ground can contribute to conceptualization, policy framing, and translation of L&D financing idea into practice.
We invite contributions in the form of research articles, case studies, policy analysis, and literature reviews on intersecting dimensions of vulnerability, climate losses and damages, and the prospect of transformation. Papers should take an interdisciplinary approach and may focus on one or more of these aspects: governance, adaptation, risk, resilience, institutional dynamics, climate finance, political economy, public policy, community empowerment, gender inclusion, multilevel governance, innovation, and planning.
We anticipate novel framing of problems and research emphasis based on recent research within the scope of the topic. Papers can focus on theoretical, conceptual, policy, or methodological exploration. Case study-focused papers can be single case or multiple cases. Each paper must provide a clear introduction to the issue or question being addressed, links to relevant literature, and the methodology used. Discussion and conclusions should spell out evidence-based insights for policy and action. We expect papers from the Global South Context.
Keywords: vulnerability, climate finance, Loss and Damage Fund, climate justice, transformation, Climate loss and damage
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
