Governing Climate Change Loss and Damage
The National Turn
Published on 26. June 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
255 pages
978-1-009-56509-7 (ISBN)
Description
Climate-related loss and damage has been dominating international climate change negotiations in recent years. Until now we have had little understanding of how individual states are grappling with climate change destruction. Governing Climate Change Loss and Damage offers among the first book-length explorations of how loss and damage policy works at a national level. It focuses specifically on countries in the Global South on the frontline of climate change to identify new mechanisms through which key factors - climate risks and impacts, international developments, national institutions and the ideational landscape - shape policy engagement, development and adoption. Guided by an original theoretical framework and seven original empirical case studies, this book shows the way to more effective governance of loss and damage now and in the future. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Reviews / Votes
'Loss and Damage has become the third pillar of international climate action. Crucially, we know little about how national contexts are embedding it in their domestic climate policy agenda. This insightful book offers an important comparative view of the domestic politics of Loss and Damage policymaking. The book is a must-read for those seeking a general theory and novel case studies on how national institutions and actors in the Global South have owned and adjusted to the issue of Loss and Damage in recent years.' Federica Genovese, University of Oxford 'This book shines a light on the reality of climate change. It documents what is being lost, who is in the firing line, and how this challenge is being tackled by governments large and small. Vanhala and Calliari have produced the authoritative source on how actions matter, from diplomats in corridors of power to fishers in the threatened islands of the Caribbean.' Neil Adger, University of ExeterMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
421 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-009-56509-7 (9781009565097)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
06/2025
Cambridge University Press
€107.70
Shipment within 15-20 days
Persons
Lisa Vanhala is Professor of Political Science at University College London. Her work on loss and damage governance, climate change litigation and environmental legal mobilization has been published in Comparative Political Studies, Global Environmental Politics and Global Environmental Change. She is also the author of Governing the End: The Making of Climate Change Loss and Damage focused on the UN. Elisa Calliari is a Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. She studies how policy makers at different governance scales understand and address climate change impacts beyond adaptation. Elisa is involved in loss and damage negotiations as member of the Italian and EU delegation at the UNFCCC.
Content
1. Introduction Lisa Vanhala and Elisa Calliari; 2. Theory and methods Lisa Vanhala and Elisa Calliari; 3. The loss and damage policy landscape: Tuvalu as a 'most likely case' Elisa Calliari; 4. Knowledge politics on the frontlines: the problem of acknowledging loss and damage in Antigua and Barbuda Lisa Vanhala and Michai Robertson; 5. After the storm: the institutionally disruptive impacts of climate change in the Bahamas Lisa Vanhala, Adelle Thomas and Latonya Williams; 6. Loss and damage in a land-locked state: the paradox of Ethiopia's green economy Lisa Vanhala, Selam Kidane Abebe and Asaye Ketema; 7. Loss and damage policy in Bangladesh: from domestic challenges to global engagements Douwe van Schie, Md Fahad Hossain and Nusrat Naushin; 8. 'Money for the poor': perceptions of loss and damage in Peru's emerging economy Elisa Calliari and Monserrat Madariaga Gomez de Cuenca; 9. (Non-)Governance evolving: COP25 and Chile's growing engagement with loss and damage Monserrat Madariaga Gomez De Cuenca; 10. Conclusion.