Technology for climate justice: A reporting framework for loss and damage as part of key global agreements

Technology plays a critical role in the ability to retain, reduce or transfer climate risk or address impacts. However, vulnerable communities do not fully benefit from existing technology, whereas they are disproportionally impacted by climate change . This chapter assesses how technology can shape limits to adaptation and how to report on this injustice as part of key global agreements. We develop an access, use and innovation of technology framework. As a case on a relevant technology, we test it on transboundary early warning systems in South Asia. We find that only a limited set of the state-of-the-art technologies available globally is accessed and used. Insufficient capacity and funding result in the bare minimum, largely copycat type of technology. As climate change progresses, demands on technology increase, whereas, if no action is taken, the technology remains the same widening the adaptation deficit. A better understanding of the crossover from disaster risk reduction to climate adaptation and the emerging policy domain of loss and damage allows trade-offs in terms of reducing risks through greater investment in technologies for adaptation versus absorbing risks and then financing curative or transformative loss and damage measures. We argue that attention to especially distributive, compensatory and procedural climate justice principles, in terms of distributing technology, building capacity and providing finance, can help to motivate support for widening the technology spectrum available to developing countries. We propose as part of comprehensive risk management that, first, an inventory should be developed how of technologies shape soft and hard adaptation limits. Second, technology for climate justice might be included in the adaptation communications to support reporting on the expected and experienced impact of measures on loss and damage, at a sufficiently disaggregated level. Third, soft adaptation limits should be levelled by making technology research, innovation and design equitable between those countries having capacity and those not, recognising the commitment to leave no one behind.