As ministers arrive in Cancún one of the most urgent issues they need to resolve is loss and damage for small island states. CARE International calls for decisive action to overcome this deadlock in the negotiations.

“Loss and damage is one of the most difficult issues at stake here in Cancún. Put bluntly, it is about small islands like the Maldives or Tuvalu that could disappear under rising seas. How do you put a price on that?”, asks Poul Erik Lauridsen, Climate Change Advocacy Coordinator for CARE International.

‘Loss and Damage’ is the term used in the climate change negotiations to describe the mechanism by which countries that experience permanent loss and damage due to climate change will be compensated. The question is who will pay and how big is the bill.

“All countries will have to adapt to climate change. But beyond a certain point adaptation is not possible”, Lauridsen says. Many small island developing nations could in effect cease to exist due to irreparable loss of their land and damage to their cultural heritage. “This is the stark reality when adaptation is no longer an option”, states Lauridsen.

Existing efforts to assist small islands such as the recently set up SIDS-DOCK fund supported by the US and the European Union, only go a small way towards solving the problem. “Such initiatives are welcome” says Poul Erik Lauridsen. “However, this will not rescue the low lying island states in the long run. Ultimately we need to slow down sea level rise”. Thus in Cancún ministers must tackle two main issues for small island states. One is a bold commitment to ambitious emission reduction targets, and the other is to resolve the ‘Loss and Damage’ issue.

Media contact in Cancun:

Sandra Bulling
Senior Media Officer
CARE Germany-Luxemburg

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