Decision 5/CP.23
Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts
The Conference of the Parties,
Recalling decisions 3/CP.18, 2/CP.19, 2/CP.20, 1/CP.21, 2/CP.21, 3/CP.22 and 4/CP.22 and the Paris Agreement, particularly Article 8,
Noting the concerns raised by Parties on the increasing frequency and severity of climate-related disasters that have affected many countries, including heatwaves, drought, floods, tropical cyclones, dust storms and other extreme weather events, as well as the increasing impacts associated with slow onset events, and the urgent need to avert, minimize and address these impacts through comprehensive risk management approaches, inter alia, through early warning systems, measures to enhance recovery and rehabilitation and build back and forward better, social protection instruments, including social safety nets, and transformational approaches,
1. Welcomes the report of the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts;1
2. Also welcomes the progress made by the Executive Committee in implementing its initial two-year workplan and operationalizing the Fiji Clearing House for Risk Transfer and the task force on displacement pursuant to decision 1/CP.21, paragraphs 48 and 49;
3. Expresses its appreciation to Parties, bodies and organizations for supporting the work of the Executive Committee, including through partnerships and collaboration, and encourages them to enhance their efforts in this regard;
4. Notes the flexible five-year rolling workplan of the Executive Committee, which enables the timely consideration of cross-cutting issues and current, urgent and emerging needs;
5. Also notes that the Executive Committee will evaluate progress made towards implementing its five-year rolling workplan in 2020 and at regular intervals at subsequent meetings of the Executive Committee;
6. Requests the Executive Committee to include in its annual reports, as appropriate, more detailed information on the work undertaken by its expert groups, subcommittees, panels, thematic advisory groups and task-focused ad hoc working groups on, to the extent possible, issues of relevance to the regional and national context as identified by Parties in their submissions;2
7. Welcomes the plan of the task force on displacement referred to in paragraph 2 above to convene a meeting in May 2018 on all areas of its work, which will include wide consultations with stakeholders to ensure regional coverage;
8. Invites the task force on displacement referred to in paragraph 2 above to take into consideration both cross-border and internal displacement, in accordance with its mandate, when developing recommendations for integrated approaches to averting, minimizing and addressing displacement related to the adverse impacts of climate change;3
9. Requests the secretariat, under the guidance of the Executive Committee and the Chair of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation, to organize, in conjunction with the
forty-eighth sessions of the subsidiary bodies (April–May 2018), an expert dialogue4 to explore a wide range of information, inputs and views on ways for facilitating the mobilization and securing of expertise, and enhancement of support, including finance, technology and capacity-building, for averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including extreme weather events and slow onset events, with a view to informing the preparation of the technical paper referred to in paragraph 2(f) of decision 4/CP.22;
10. Invites Parties, observers and other stakeholders to submit,5 by 15 February 2018, their views in the context of activity 1(a) of strategic workstream (e) of the five-year rolling workplan of the Executive Committee;
11. Requests the secretariat to prepare a report on the expert dialogue referred to in paragraph 9 above for consideration by the Executive Committee at its second meeting in 2018;
12. Invites Parties, relevant organizations and other stakeholders to submit,6 by 1 February 2019, their views and inputs on possible elements to be included in the terms of reference for the review of the Warsaw International Mechanism referred to in decision 4/CP.22, paragraph 2(d), taking into account the outcomes of the implementation of the work of the Executive Committee, for consideration by the subsidiary bodies at their sessions to be held in June 2019;
13. Encourages Parties to actively engage in the work and to disseminate, promote and make use of the products of the Warsaw International Mechanism and its Executive Committee, including by:
(a) Establishing a loss and damage contact point through their respective UNFCCC national focal point referred to in decision 4/CP.22, paragraph 4(d);
(b) Participating in the meetings of the Executive Committee as observers, recognizing the constraints of time and resources;
(c) Incorporating or continuing to incorporate the consideration of extreme weather events and slow onset events, non-economic losses, climate change impacts on human mobility, including migration, displacement and planned relocation, and comprehensive risk management into relevant policy, planning and action, as appropriate, and encouraging relevant bilateral and multilateral entities to support such efforts;
14. Reiterates its invitation to constituted bodies under the Convention, as appropriate, to continue to integrate into their work efforts to avert, minimize and address loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, vulnerable populations and the ecosystems that they depend on;
15. Invites United Nations and other relevant institutions, specialized agencies and other entities, the research community, civil society and the private sector, as appropriate, to strengthen cooperation and collaboration, including through partnerships, with the Executive Committee on topics related to averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including extreme weather events and slow onset events;
16. Also invites relevant research institutions and organizations to share, as appropriate, their data and key findings on slow onset events with the Executive Committee, including at events organized by the Executive Committee, with a view to enhancing knowledge and understanding of slow onset events;
17. Reaffirms that the Executive Committee may enhance its effectiveness by prioritizing activities in thematic areas for further work;
18. Encourages the Executive Committee to seek further ways to enhance its responsiveness, effectiveness and performance by improving the planning and organization of its work, including in the context of the operations of its expert groups, subcommittees, panels, thematic advisory groups and task-focused ad hoc working groups, such as appropriate balanced representation, expertise of membership in accordance with the tasks, and the duration of the mandates of those expert groups, subcommittees, panels, thematic advisory groups and task-focused ad hoc working groups;
19. Requests the Executive Committee, in accordance with its mandate7 and the report referred to in paragraph 1 above:
(a) To consider, when updating its five-year rolling workplan, cross-cutting issues and current, urgent and emerging needs related to extreme weather events and slow onset events, including but not limited to drought and floods, in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, vulnerable populations and the ecosystems that they depend on;
(b) To enhance its efforts in ensuring that information generated from its work is converted into user-friendly products, such as tools and methods, and material for training modules, with a view to enhancing the coherence and effectiveness of relevant efforts undertaken at the regional and national level, as appropriate;
(c) To consider, through collaboration and partnerships, the development and the dissemination at all levels of user-friendly information and communication products on averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage issues of relevance to the regional and national context;
20. Encourages the Executive Committee to collaborate with other bodies under the Convention and the Paris Agreement within the scope of their respective mandates and to continue considering ways of facilitating the mobilization and securing of expertise, and the enhancement of support, including finance, technology and capacity-building, including its work on enhancing action and support, and when considering the composition and mandates of its expert groups and those it may establish;
21. Reiterates its encouragement to Parties to make available sufficient resources for the successful and timely implementation of the work of the Executive Committee and its expert groups, subcommittees, panels, thematic advisory groups and task-focused ad hoc working groups;
22. Invites relevant organizations, as appropriate, to further mobilize resources, including expertise and tools, through a wide variety of instruments, channels and partnerships, for actions related to averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with climate change impacts;
23. Takes note of the estimated budgetary implications of the activities to be undertaken by the secretariat referred to in paragraphs 4–20 above;
24. Requests that the actions of the secretariat called for in this decision be undertaken subject to the availability of financial resources.
12th plenary meeting
17 November 2017
1 FCCC/SB/2017/1 and Add.1.
2 In response to the invitation of the Conference of the Parties in decision 3/CP.22, paragraph 5. The submissions are available at http://unfccc.int/10064.
3 Decision 1/CP.21, paragraph 49.
4 To be known as the Suva expert dialogue.
5 Views should be submitted via the submission portal at http://www4.unfccc.int/sites/submissionportal/Pages/Home.aspx.
6 As footnote 5 above.
7 Decision 2/CP.19, paragraphs 2 and 5.
