Addressing Loss and Damage: What can we learn from countries’ National Adaptation Plans?

The report analyzes 41 multisectoral National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) to explore their role in managing loss and damage. It finds that while nearly half of NAPs explicitly mention loss and damage and almost all incorporate disaster risk management, there are significant gaps in addressing non-economic losses and irreversible impacts. The authors argue that NAPs are essential tools for minimizing loss and damage and recommend that international funding and planning for loss and damage build upon existing NAP risk assessments and institutional frameworks.

• Approximately 49% of the reviewed NAP documents make direct references to loss and damage, with a higher prevalence in documents submitted in 2021 and 2022 and among Small Island Developing States.
• Disaster risk management (DRM) is nearly universal in NAPs, with 95% of documents mentioning DRM or disaster risk reduction (DRR), though only 10% explicitly refer to comprehensive risk management (CRM).
• DRM actions within NAPs are heavily skewed toward ex-ante measures like risk assessment and early warning systems, while ex-post actions such as disaster response and recovery are less common.
• While the specific term 'slow-onset events' is used by only 17% of countries, 100% of the reviewed NAPs mention at least one specific slow-onset event, such as sea level rise or increasing temperatures.
• Permanent human mobility, including displacement and resettlement, is addressed in only about 40% of NAPs, despite a higher percentage of documents mentioning mobility in general terms.
• Non-economic losses are rarely addressed, appearing in only 29% of NAPs, with the loss of cultural heritage being the most frequently cited issue.
• NAP documents generally lack detailed analysis of scenarios that exceed the limits of adaptation, leaving a gap in the assessment of existential threats and irreversible impacts.

APA

Qi, J., Dazé, A., & Hammill, A. (2023). Addressing Loss and Damage: What can we learn from countries’ National Adaptation Plans? NAP Global Network. https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/napgn-en-2023-addressing-loss-damage.pdf

Chicago

Qi, Jeffrey, Angie Dazé, and Anne Hammill. Addressing Loss and Damage: What can we learn from countries’ National Adaptation Plans? NAP Global Network, 2023. https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/napgn-en-2023-addressing-loss-damage.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Qi |first1=Jeffrey |last2=Dazé |first2=Angie |last3=Hammill |first3=Anne |title=Addressing Loss and Damage: What can we learn from countries’ National Adaptation Plans? |publisher=NAP Global Network |date=May 2023 |url=https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/napgn-en-2023-addressing-loss-damage.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{qi2023addressing, author = {Qi, Jeffrey and Dazé, Angie and Hammill, Anne}, title = {{Addressing Loss and Damage: What can we learn from countries’ National Adaptation Plans?}}, institution = {NAP Global Network}, year = {2023}, month = may, url = {https://napglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/napgn-en-2023-addressing-loss-damage.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }