Creating the enabling conditions for the implementation of the Loss & Damage (L&D) mechanism in Ecuador

Ecuador is highly vulnerable to climate-related events, such as El Niño, but lacks an official economic quantification of loss and damage to effectively participate in international negotiations. This proposal, implemented by the Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) and the Ministry of the Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE), aims to create a national L&D framework. The project will focus on establishing an intersectoral working group, developing standardized methodologies for quantifying economic and non-economic losses, creating a national L&D evaluation, and building technical capacity through training and a communication strategy. The total requested amount is USD 499,952 over a 24-month period.

• Ecuador faces significant economic vulnerability to climate events; for example, the 1997-1998 El Niño phenomenon caused losses of USD 2,869.3 million, representing 15% of the country's 1997 GDP.
• The country lacks an official economic quantification of loss and damage, which hinders its ability to engage in UNFCCC L&D mechanism negotiations and leverage climate financing.
• Climate change is causing observable trends in Ecuador, including a 20% to 30% retreat of Andean glaciers over the last 30 years and temperature increases across all regions since 1960.
• The proposal identifies five primary barriers to L&D implementation: lack of specific governance mechanisms, limited financial capacity, insufficient data collection and reporting systems, limited technical capacity to mainstream L&D into planning, and a limited general knowledge base.
• The project will establish an intersectoral working group under the Interinstitutional Climate Change Committee (CICC) and an interinstitutional information exchange mechanism to operationalize L&D at national and subnational levels.
• A key technical output is the development of a national protocol and methodologies to quantify both economic and non-economic losses and damages, including potential losses under different climate scenarios.
• The project will integrate L&D data into the existing Climate Change National Register (RNCC) platform through a new online component and a tracking methodology.
• The proposal includes the creation of the first official National Plan to address losses and damages in Ecuador, which will be aligned with the National Adaptation Plan and the NDC.
• To address knowledge gaps, the project will implement a training program for approximately 200 people, including a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and a national communication strategy.
• The project adopts a gender-responsive approach to address the fact that current L&D information is not compiled with a gender lens, which obscures the differential impacts of climate change on men and women, especially in rural areas.

APA

Green Climate Fund (2023). Creating the enabling conditions for the implementation of the Loss & Damage (L&D) mechanism in Ecuador. https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/ecuador-caf-loss-and-damage-approved-readiness-proposal.pdf

Chicago

Green Climate Fund. Creating the enabling conditions for the implementation of the Loss & Damage (L&D) mechanism in Ecuador. 2023. https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/ecuador-caf-loss-and-damage-approved-readiness-proposal.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Green Climate Fund |title=Creating the enabling conditions for the implementation of the Loss & Damage (L&D) mechanism in Ecuador |date=17 February 2023 |url=https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/ecuador-caf-loss-and-damage-approved-readiness-proposal.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greenclimatefund2023creating, author = {{Green Climate Fund}}, title = {{Creating the enabling conditions for the implementation of the Loss \& Damage (L\&D) mechanism in Ecuador}}, institution = {Green Climate Fund}, year = {2023}, month = feb, url = {https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/ecuador-caf-loss-and-damage-approved-readiness-proposal.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }