The term 'residual risk' was not assessed in detail in AR5 and was used interchangeably with other terms, including 'residual impacts', 'residual loss and damage' and 'residual damage'. SR15 includes discussion of residual risks without an explicit definition and relates these to L oss and D amage and limits to adaptation, concluding that residual risks rise as global temperatures increase from 1.5℃ to 2ºC. SRCCL refers to residual risks arising from limits to adaptation related to land management. Such residual risk can emerge from irreversible forms of land degradation, such as coastal erosion when land completely disappears, collapse of infrastructure due to thawing of permafrost, and extreme forms of soil erosion. SROCC advanced the conceptualisation of residual risk and integrated it within the risk framework, defining residual risk as the risk that remains after actions have been taken to reduce hazards, exposure and/or vulnerability. Residual risk is therefore generally higher where adaptation failure, insufficient adaptation or limits to adaptation occur. We use the SROCC definition of residual risk for our assessment in the following sections and identify residual risks that are associated with limits to adaptation.
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report