Governing Climate Change Loss and Damage
The National Turn

First book-length treatment of climate change loss and damage policy and politics at the national level in the Global South.

Lisa Vanhala (Edited by), Elisa Calliari (Edited by)

9781009565073, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 June 2025

255 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.485 kg

'This book shines a light on the reality of climate change. It documents what is being lost, who is in the firing line, and how this challenge is being tackled by governments large and small. Vanhala and Calliari have produced the authoritative source on how actions matter, from diplomats in corridors of power to fishers in the threatened islands of the Caribbean.' Neil Adger, University of Exeter

Climate-related loss and damage has been dominating international climate change negotiations in recent years. Until now we have had little understanding of how individual states are grappling with climate change destruction. Governing Climate Change Loss and Damage offers among the first book-length explorations of how loss and damage policy works at a national level. It focuses specifically on countries in the Global South on the frontline of climate change to identify new mechanisms through which key factors – climate risks and impacts, international developments, national institutions and the ideational landscape – shape policy engagement, development and adoption. Guided by an original theoretical framework and seven original empirical case studies, this book shows the way to more effective governance of loss and damage now and in the future. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

1. Introduction Lisa Vanhala and Elisa Calliari
2. Theory and methods Lisa Vanhala and Elisa Calliari
3. The loss and damage policy landscape: Tuvalu as a 'most likely case' Elisa Calliari
4. Knowledge politics on the frontlines: the problem of acknowledging loss and damage in Antigua and Barbuda Lisa Vanhala and Michai Robertson
5. After the storm: the institutionally disruptive impacts of climate change in the Bahamas Lisa Vanhala, Adelle Thomas and Latonya Williams
6. Loss and damage in a land-locked state: the paradox of Ethiopia's green economy Lisa Vanhala, Selam Kidane Abebe and Asaye Ketema
7. Loss and damage policy in Bangladesh: from domestic challenges to global engagements Douwe van Schie, Md Fahad Hossain and Nusrat Naushin
8. 'Money for the poor': perceptions of loss and damage in Peru's emerging economy Elisa Calliari and Monserrat Madariaga Gómez de Cuenca
9. (Non-)Governance evolving: COP25 and Chile's growing engagement with loss and damage Monserrat Madariaga Gómez De Cuenca
10. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB]