Methodological challenges in assessing loss and damage from climate-related extreme events and slow onset disasters: Evidence from India

Abstract

Estimations of losses and damages (L&Ds) from climate-related extreme events and slow-onset disasters have received significant attention in all the Conference of Parties (CoP) meetings in the last two decades, particularly after the CoP-13 held in Bali in 2007. Society incurs two types of L&D, i.e., economic and non-economic, and the latter is mostly found ignored in L&D assessment reports, because it cannot be estimated directly, either in pecuniary or non-pecuniary terms. While the financial part of L&Ds has taken centre stage in international negotiations, estimations of ex-ante and ex-post L&Ds could assist policymakers in assessing unavoided and unavoidable L&Ds, provide inputs to demand compensation, insurance, and risk management options, and facilitate further progression of L&D scholarship. Although the computation of L&Ds is imperative, a few estimations are available from developing nations, including India, because of a lack of clarity in the existing definition, methods and several limitations associated with estimating L&Ds. Hence, this paper points out methodological issues that emerged while assessing post-disaster L&Ds in India from extreme events and slow-onset disasters, particularly cyclonic storms, floods, and droughts. This study, on the one hand, provokes scholarly communities and policymakers to address these methodological gaps to further increase the number of L&D studies, and on the other hand, furnishes suggestions to redefine L&D and to improvise estimation methods, so that both economic and non-economic L&D indicators may be covered to a large extent.