Negotiator Briefing: A Needs-based Approach to Loss and Damage

A needs-based approach is rooted in the recognition that adequate climate action has context-specific requirements and that identifying and addressing these is necessary to enable implementation efforts towards diverse climate goals. In this approach a need is anything that is concretely required to enable adequate and timely climate action in ways that align with commitments towards achieving universal access to sustainable development, which is itself necessary to building the required adaptive and mitigative capacity. Needs may include finance but finance is a means and not an end in itself. Many other needs – including institution building, political mobilization and capacity building – are also required to actually enable climate action on the ground and will be dependent on the specific requirements experienced in each locale.

A needs-based approach is appropriate for guiding loss and damage in the Global Stocktake and beyond because it prioritizes the protection of those vulnerable to climate change and recognizes the specific contextual factors facing particular people, communities, and Parties. This approach focuses attention on the concrete requirements for action adequate for meeting the objectives of the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement and addressing the very real implications of already existing and mounting loss and damage from climate change. A needs-based approach is also inherently sensitive to uneven access to sustainable development, as what is required to address climate change and reduce poverty will vary.