The Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement,
Recalling decision 2/CP.19, whereby the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts was established to guide the implementation of the functions of the Warsaw International Mechanism in addressing loss and damage associated with the impacts of climate change, including extreme events and slow onset events, in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change,
Also recalling the Paris Agreement and relevant decisions of the Conference of the Parties and the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement,
Further recalling Article 8 of the Paris Agreement,
Recognizing the rapidly evolving loss and damage landscape,
Reaffirming the importance of the Warsaw International Mechanism to all Parties, particularly developing countries, for averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage,
Noting with appreciation the work of the Executive Committee and its expert groups, technical expert group and task force to date, including their progress in developing technical guides, informed by the best available science,
I. Enhancing implementation
1. Welcomes the progress of work under the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts since the last review thereof, which took place in December 2019;
2. Agrees on the need to enhance the effectiveness of the implementation of the functions of the Warsaw International Mechanism;
3. Stresses the importance of continuing to enhance action for responding to loss and damage to ensure that the work under the Warsaw International Mechanism further serves particularly vulnerable developing countries and segments of the population that are already vulnerable owing to geography, socioeconomic status, livelihood, gender, age, minority status, marginalization, displacement or disability, as well as the ecosystems that they depend on;
4. Expresses appreciation to the expert groups, technical expert group and task force of the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism and the organizations, bodies, networks and experts engaged in providing technical assistance to developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change through the Santiago network for averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change for their progress in furthering the implementation of the functions of the Warsaw International Mechanism;
5. Recalls the recommendation for Parties to establish a loss and damage contact point through their respective UNFCCC national focal point and the invitation for Parties to inform the Santiago network secretariat of their liaison to the Santiago network secretariat, as appropriate;
6. Welcomes the progress in operationalizing the Santiago network to date, including the catalysation of the provision of the first case of technical assistance, namely to Vanuatu, by organizations, bodies, networks and experts thereunder, while highlighting the crucial need to accelerate delivery of technical assistance;
7. Requests the Santiago network to enhance its efforts to catalyse the provision of technical assistance by relevant organizations, bodies, networks and experts to developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, while promoting, as appropriate, locally led approaches to averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage that protect vulnerable communities and consider the context of displacement;
8. Encourages developing country Parties that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change to submit requests for technical assistance to the Santiago network in a demand-driven and country-driven nationally determined manner;
9. Also encourages communities that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change to submit requests for technical assistance, while recalling that technical assistance provided through the Santiago network in a demand-driven manner will be developed through an inclusive and country-driven process taking into account the needs of vulnerable people, Indigenous Peoples and local communities;
10. Recalls paragraph 27 of decision 6/CMA.5, endorsed by decision 2/CP.28, in which the Advisory Board of the Santiago network was invited to provide guidance to the Santiago network secretariat on developing guidelines and procedures for enabling access to and assisting in preparing requests for technical assistance that recognize the significant capacity constraints of the least developed countries and small island developing States;
11. Invites the Advisory Board of the Santiago network to consider expediting the provision of support for accessing technical assistance and preparing requests for technical assistance to developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, including through possible enhancements to existing guidelines and procedures, as appropriate;
12. Acknowledges the decisions of the Executive Committee and the Advisory Board of the Santiago network to incorporate gender-responsive and intergenerationally equitable approaches into their respective work, including through the promotion of disaggregated data and gender statistics, and engagement of gender experts and women-led organizations in that work;
13. Recalls that the Santiago network secretariat will have a lean, cost-efficient organizational structure, led by a director who will manage a small core team of professional and administrative staff, in order to meet its responsibilities and perform its functions efficiently and effectively;
14. Requests the Advisory Board of the Santiago network, within its mandate, to:
(a) Monitor the cost-effectiveness of the implementation of the Santiago network secretariat’s approved organizational structure, regional presence and budget, as part of its regular work;
(b) Be guided by the aim of maximizing impact in its budgetary decisions, avoiding administrative burden with a view to maximizing cost-effectiveness and to ensuring the timely, efficient and effective delivery of technical assistance in developing countries, and ensure that the largest possible proportion of its resources and annual budget goes to technical assistance and capacity-building activities to support developing countries prepare their technical assistance requests;
(c) Expedite the recruitment process for the timely operationalization of the regional presence with the aim of enabling them to facilitate capacity-building and ensure timely access to technical assistance in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change;
15. Acknowledges the decision of the Advisory Board of the Santiago network on the approach to determining the minimum percentage of technical assistance funded directly by the Santiago network directed to communities that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change7 and requests the Santiago network secretariat to develop a proposal on a minimum percentage to be presented to the Advisory Board for consideration and adoption by its 7th meeting;
16. Recalls that the Santiago network secretariat will commission one independent review of the performance of the Santiago network, including, inter alia, sustainability and sources of funding, adequacy of funding levels relative to technical assistance requests, timeliness, effectiveness, engagement, gender-responsiveness and delivery of technical assistance to communities particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, in a timely manner so that the findings of this review can feed into the subsequent review of the Warsaw International Mechanism, for determining the need for further independent reviews of the performance of the Santiago network;
17. Requests the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism to: (
a) Include activities in the future plan of action of its expert group on action and support that inform the Executive Committee’s work in assisting developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change in accessing technical assistance and finance for responding to loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change;
(b) Update, by its 25th meeting, the terms of reference, including with regard to membership, and plan of action of the expert group on action and support in the light of the evolving loss and damage landscape, noting the cross-cutting nature of action and support, and ensure that action and support are systematically considered in the work of its other expert groups, technical expert group and task force in order to promote synergy and consistency in their work;
(c) Facilitate the work of its expert groups, technical expert group and task force and enhance efforts to engage relevant experts in undertaking the activities of the respective plans of action;
(d) Enhance its work on non-economic losses, including through its expert group on non-economic losses and implementation of the second plan of action thereof, with a view to assisting developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change in seeking technical assistance under the Santiago network;
(e) Develop knowledge products focused on enhancing understanding of approaches to managing compound risks and impacts associated with climate change and responding to loss and damage arising from cascading impacts associated with the adverse effects of climate change;
(f) Develop knowledge products on existing methodologies and approaches for assessing economic and non-economic loss and damage for the purpose of informing the development of context-specific national methodologies and approaches for responding to loss and damage at the national level and supporting developing countries in preparing technical assistance and funding requests;
(g) Strengthen its support for fostering the collection and management of data, including gender- and age-disaggregated data, for assessing the risk of loss and damageassociated with the adverse effects of climate change, including for the monitoring of trends in the differentiated impacts of both extreme and slow onset events;
(h) Enhance coordination across its expert groups, technical expert group and task force with a view to strengthening synergies in their work; (i) Develop voluntary, discretionary and non-prescriptive knowledge products on how Parties could, as appropriate, develop and integrate consideration of loss and damage into national response plans;
18. Acknowledges the progress of the Executive Committee and its expert groups, technical expert group and task force in preparing voluntary guidelines for enhancing the collection and management of data and information to inform the preparation of biennial transparency reports and requests the Executive Committee to expedite its work thereon with a view to completing it by no later than at its 25th meeting;
19. Encourages the Executive Committee to ensure that the information provided in the guidelines referred to in paragraph 18 above is relevant to Parties’ preparation of biennial transparency reports with a view to making the process of preparing biennial transparency reports more accessible and less burdensome, taking into account national contexts and circumstances;
20. Decides to prepare a regular report with a multi-year frequency to be decided at the sessions of the Conference of the Parties and the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement immediately following the publication of the first report, taking into consideration Parties’ views, including on the value added of the report, for the purpose of synthesizing information from Parties and other stakeholders on critical issues and lessons learned and providing best practices, solutions and policy advice in relation to loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, in an accessible and user-friendly manner, by:
(a) Providing regular, concrete information on scientific, policy, financial and technical work in the global response to averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage;
(b) Providing a comprehensive source of information on loss and damage under the Convention and the Paris Agreement;
(c) Showcasing case studies, best practices, practical and pragmatic lessons learned, innovative solutions, projections of risk, scenarios and solutions on risk analysis by capturing occurrences, typologies and costs of loss and damage at the national level in all regions and across all types of climate-related hazards;
(d) Showcasing national- and community-level experience and promoting understanding of ways of integrating cross-cutting vulnerability analyses, taking into consideration the eleventh preambular paragraph of the Paris Agreement, 10 into efforts in averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change;
21. Also decides that the report should be informed by, inter alia:
(a) Information provided by Parties, including through voluntary submissions, related to averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage in relevant national policies, plans, strategies and frameworks, particularly loss and damage response plans, including multi-hazard disaster risk reduction strategies, as well as in their biennial transparency reports, nationally determined contributions and national adaptation plans;
(b) Best available science, including inputs and information from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change relating to loss and damage;
(c) Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge and the knowledge systems of local communities;
(d) Reports and publications from organizations, bodies, networks and experts designated as members of the Santiago network;
(e) Joint annual reports of the Executive Committee and the Santiago network;
(f) Knowledge products of the Executive Committee and the Santiago network;
(g) Synthesis reports prepared by the secretariat on information on loss and damage provided by Parties in their biennial transparency reports;
(h) Reports of the Standing Committee on Finance submitted to the Conference of the Parties and the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement;
(i) Annual reports of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage;
(j) Relevant documents prepared at the regional level;
22. Requests the Advisory Board of the Santiago network, in consultation with the Executive Committee, to prepare, no later than at the 7th meeting of the Advisory Board, terms of reference, covering modalities, budget, timeline and engagement and involvement of organizations, bodies, networks and experts, for the preparation of the report referred to in paragraph 20 above by the organizations, bodies, networks and experts designated as members of the Santiago network;
23. Also requests the Advisory Board and the organizations, bodies, networks and experts engaged in preparing the report referred to in paragraph 20 above to present a draft of the report to Parties at an appropriate event to be held at the sessions of the subsidiary bodies prior to its finalization and publication;
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