Loss and Damage is not only a human rights issue; it is the result of 30 years of climate inaction that has caused irreversible impacts to developing countries and frontline communities, who are constantly forced to choose between development and resilience. The economic and non-economic impacts of the loss and damage disproportionately affect the communities and developing countries that have contributed least to greenhouse gas emissions. This is climate injustice.
On the other hand, there has been little progress made. The establishment of an international mechanism, known as the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM), aims to understand the impact of loss and damage, in collaboration among actors, to increase action and support for implementing measures to address loss and damage. The WIM to date has two arms, one with the purpose to ensure the production of knowledge products aiming to inform policy makers on how to integrate aspects of loss and damage within their national plans (known as the Executive Committee, ExCOM), and another to ensure that developing countries can access technical assistance to design an approach to address loss and damage, Santiago Network.
The ExCOM is composed of 20 members from the Parties to the Convention and is required to meet at least twice a year. With the outcome of the Global Stocktake (GST), the SBs discussion on the WIM review, the FRLD board meetings, as well as our COP 30 demands (of the LDYC), we are putting forward this statement as our expectation for the 23rd meeting of the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM ExCOM) for Loss and Damage taking place from 30th September – 3rd October 2025.
We demand:
- The voluntary guidelines for the voluntary inclusion of “loss and damage” in countries’ BTRs need to be finalized. This will ensure that the subsequent BTR synthetic report prepared by the UNFCCC Secretariat includes a separate section on loss and damage, providing clarity on where the gap lies in ensuring that developing countries have access to adequate action and support to address loss and damage.
- The Excom should take forward the WIM review discussion on the need of a “loss and damage gap report” by offering the initial outline of what the report should contain to support the call within the WIM review where developing countries, and frontline communities demands an official input documents that can inform with clarity the actual figure that is needed for action to respond to loss and damage, as well as how to reinforce the access for both the technical, capacity and financial resources.
- Considering the growing momentum and recognition of “loss and damage” and the fact that WIM Excom is the most equipped institution that hosts the item, it should include in its recommendation to the COP 30 a request for “loss and damage” to be recognised as a standalone agenda item which is permanent within the COP and CMA.
The WIM ExCOM must move beyond dialogue to close the gap in support, action, and accountability to those most impacted by climate crisis.