Anchoring loss & damage in enhanced NDCs

The year 2020 is a key milestone, as countries are revising their climate action plans - known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) - to be submitted to the UN Climate Change Secretariat on or before 31 December, 2020. Now is the best opportunity to ensure loss and damage is included as a core component of these national plans. At the very least loss and damage needs to be recognised as an indicator of progress on climate action, with the scale of loss and damage decreasing as our efforts to mitigate and adapt are ramped up. Currently, there is no formal guidance on how to incorporate loss and damage in the NDCs. This policy brief provides guidance to countries and other interested stakeholders on how to include loss and damage in their respective NDCs, outlining four simple steps to integrate loss and damage into their climate plans.