Despite mitigation and adaptation action, residual loss and damage are expected to occur and increase due to the accumulation of adverse climate change impacts (IPCC, 2014). Within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), “loss” refers to negative impacts for which reparation or restoration is impossible, as distinct from “damage”, which refers to negative impacts for which reparation or restoration is possible (UNFCCC, 2012). The causes of such negative effects include both extreme events (such as storms, hurricanes, floods, landslides and heatwaves) and slow onset events (such as sea level rise, increasing temperatures, ocean acidification, melting of glaciers and related impacts, salinisation, land and forest degradation, loss of biodiversity and desertification). There are important interrelationships between extreme and slow onset events, as in the case of drought.
