Introduction

Loss and damage refer to irreversible losses resulting from the impacts of climate change, including extreme and slow-onset events, despite mitigation and adaptation actions. It covers both sudden disasters (such as floods, cyclones, and heatwaves) and slow changes (such as sea-level rise, drought, and salinisation) that erode livelihoods over time. In India, the period from 1990 to 2022 was among the most severely affected, according to the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT), with floods and droughts accounting for the highest shares of damage costs at 63.10% and 31.52%, respectively.