Hello everybody, a very warm welcome to today's IID debates event when we are looking at addressing loss of damage and exploring actions to respond, recover and reduce the risk. I'm Juliette, Events Officer IID and providing some technical support for this session. So thank you so much for joining us. We are really delighted to have you all here to launch a new report and have a hearty discussion with some excellent speakers that we've got on the panel. So that I'm really pleased to introduce Simon Addison, Principal Researcher in IID's Climate Change Group and our moderator for today's discussion. Over to you Simon. Thank you Juliette and welcome to everybody who's joining us from around the world. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening or good night for those of you who may be joining from the Pacific. It's really a great thrill to be having this online event today to launch our new working paper on addressing loss and damage actions to respond, recover and reduce the risk. This is a product of years work of collaborative research with colleagues at ICCAD in Bangladesh and others across the global south to generate evidence and insights into how countries and communities can tackle the grave challenge of loss and damage. That is increasing on a daily basis as a result of anthropogenic global heating. Today we're going to have the opportunity to reflect on this challenge and to get some reflections from a distinguished panel of guests and collaborators who are all named on the slide that you can currently see. And we're really looking forward to an exciting discussion about this. We'll also be hearing some of the top line findings of our report from the lead authors of the different chapters of this paper and there will be a Q&A at the end of the session in which we'd love to hear from you in terms of your feedback but also to field any questions that you might have so that our panelists can give you their thoughts and insights. With that I would like to hand over directly to the director of the climate change group here at IID Claire Sacchia who's going to give her perspective on the research and introduce our keynote speakers. Thanks Claire. Thanks so much Simon. It's an exciting day. This research or this process of bringing all this research and thinking together has been one that's been running over the last year so it really feels like it's been slightly more than giving birth to a baby in fact in terms of timeframe so it's been a really important process. I think what I found most important is that you know loss and damage has been highly contentious in the negotiations but it is a part of people's reality and it has been for some time especially those countries in the tropics but not exclusively but in the tropics we've been seeing that poor people are being driven back into poverty by climate events for some time and in fact it's in the top three along with health shocks to the earners and but also dairies so we know it's happening we know that we're not acting on it and the value of this research is to get practical put the politics on one side and really aim to understand what can work in tackling loss and damage and we need to do that because loss and damage is what happens when mitigating emissions is insufficient and when adaptation action has also been insufficient because it's too expensive it's too difficult it's socially or politically not feasible so this research has been aiming through gathering evidence but also through debating the issues with practitioners experts from across the world and and with a strong emphasis on those countries most affected on the least developed countries and on the small island developing states to really unpack what is it what are the big issues what has been effective in tackling loss and damage and how to finance it and we hope it'll help government and non-state actors consider how to tackle these issues and perhaps even inform the loss and the loss and damage negotiations but it has been really aiming to put ourselves in the shoes of those being asked to respond at a country level and say what do they need to know and what can we find in terms of evidence and experience that can inform that. So really delighted first of all to invite our first keynote speaker Jemima Gordon-Duff from the Scottish Government who's a deputy director and the lead on loss and damage for the Scottish Government and as we all know of course the Scottish Government was first came out with a really exciting and important announcement reflecting on the need for loss and damage finance so it was really groundbreaking so delighted to hand over to Jemima please take the floor. Thank you Claire for that great introduction and I feel like we might know each other from previous work but we can we can come back to that it's a small community isn't it in the end so thank you very much everyone for having me here today and inviting us to this launch and thank you to all those who've contributed to the paper are sharing their knowledge and expertise and as Claire said on the topic of loss and damage which is both incredibly important and incredibly complex and so thank you to IIED and ICAD particularly. This year we've seen people around the world confronted by new pressing challenges particularly Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine and the growing cost of living in debt crisis we're already seeing the impact this is having on the climate debate some of you may have seen our first minister when she was in America recently talking about the need to move even more urgently to renewables and make the transition away from fossil fuels and she's been very clear that the climate emergency remains one of the most significant issues facing our world and I don't know about you but even where I am in the north of Scotland the record temperatures and faces faced in the UK and Europe were a stark reminder that we are already being impacted by climate change it's not a future risk but one we are living through now communities are already suffering losses and damages so as Claire I think already touched on the the IPCC reports on mitigation and our adaption make it clear we must do more to minimize and avert losses and damages but they also set out that climate change is already having major impacts around the world that loss and damage cannot just be minimized or averted but it must be addressed and the IPCC reports notes that losses and damages will become increasingly severe in the global south causing a vicious cascade of climate impacts so I think it's therefore really welcome that this report focuses on the nature of loss and damages risks affecting low-income countries, marginalised groups and people living in poverty in the global south and how they might be addressed and the report makes a number of recommendations which I hope is helpful if I take in turn into and look at how the Scottish government is looking at these so the report one of the the report state recommendations is on the multi-dimensional and compounding nature of loss and damage and how that's impacting different groups differently with the people least responsible very often the one suffering its worst consequences particularly in the global south and that we must act now to address this injustice so this is one our first minister has spoken on in the past about the the fundamental injustice at the at the heart of climate change the report also recommends the need for practical action and prioritising support to those most at risk and this is one I hope the Scottish government is clearly demonstrating with our two million commitment two million pounds I should say commitment to addressing loss and damage announced by the first minister at COP26 so we're already using this to support communities via our one million pound partnership with the climate justice resilience fund which I think Heather may talk about later this work is helping people in Bangladesh address the impact of loss and damage and will soon be supporting people displaced or in the Pacific region further funds will go to projects to address losses and damages experienced in Malawi as well as a result of this year's tropical storms and for all our programs we're taking a pragmatic approach in which lived experience must be central co-designed intervention with affected people particularly the young women and other marginalised communities and individuals is a fundamental tool for building resilience and that's the approach that should ensure that those most at risk are prioritised so the Scottish government grants will help address the needs of communities suffering the acutist impacts while also generating new consideration of how the global community can best support technical measures to address loss and damage by demonstrating or providing an example of what to fund and how the projects are an important step to improving our understanding but there remain significant gaps and approaches at a national level which is why we're pleased to also be supporting ICANN's research on integrating losses and damages within national policies and planning frameworks we hope this is an important step in supporting countries assess their own loss and damage risk another recommendation that was in the report another recommendation is on the taking a layered approach and we know that our programming only scratches the surface with bilateral grants just one of many options for loss and damage financing but as the paper sets out we must layer diverse sources and flows of finance there is no single solution or silver bullet when it comes to loss and damage limiting loss and damage to a single funding route will be insufficient if we hope to close the finance gap and prevent the burden falling on the most vulnerable so as the report states our global response must be layered coordinated and complimentary we welcome the exploration by others into alternative options such as innovative and finance mechanisms including insurance and solidarity funds and while work on loss and damage must not detract from the urgent work that is also needed on adaptation and mitigation funds for loss and damage must be additional to existing climate finance so I'm going to finish just to let you know a little bit about our future plans which I hope is helpful so as a relatively new actor to what is a long-standing issue we don't have the answers but the Scottish government is committed to keeping loss and damage on the international agenda and bridging these discussions which is why we'll be hosting an international conference on loss and damage in the autumn which the First Minister announced during the bond discussions it will be a space to convene countries regions and organizations to share lessons learned and best practice including at the state of regional level there will be an opportunity to collectively develop strategies and action plans to address loss and damage risks that layer complementary measures such as humanitarian and social protection early warning systems or planned relocation but recognising that existing measures are not sufficient on their own to cover the breadth of loss and damage the conference will we hope feed into other global discussions on loss and damage as we look ahead to COP 27 which is taking place on a continent profoundly familiar with the impacts of climate change it is clear that loss and damage will be a major focus of the discussion there at that summit developed countries will need to step up and show much greater commitment on multiple challenges including loss and damage meanwhile for the Scottish government our focus will remain on the practical action that can chart a path for transformative finance showcasing steps already taken to address loss and damage enables us to make the case for the feasibility of action and drive forward global ambition and just to note that we aren't the only ones who have provided funding on loss and damage so we have the government of Wallonia and have also provided funding so thank you very much for inviting me to give the opening address to this event and for organising this today I look forward to hearing more on the findings and the recommendations for actions thank you thank you so much Jemima that was that was a brilliant overview and really exciting that your thinking and the recommendations the report has so aligned that seems like it seems perfect that you're responding already so very exciting indeed so now I'd just like to introduce Heather Mcgray who's been from the climate justice resilience fund who's been a huge ally in this work already in the thinking about loss and damage over the last year and lending her very astute and wise words in the dialogues that was a liberative dialogues with Iran so Heather delighted that you're also collaborating with the Scottish government and welcome you to also open us with some wise words here as well thanks thank you Claire and apologies everyone I direct a philanthropic predominantly in philanthropic called the climate justice resilience fund that means we mostly work with private foundations we would pool funding from from places like the oak foundation and the candida fund and others we were set up five years ago to create a fund that really puts people at the center of climate action and that was quite novel at the time I think I think funding is moving in a good direction actually with respect to that core aspiration of ours we primarily pool funding from philanthropic sources from private foundations and we support work by women and youth and indigenous peoples really supporting their efforts from the ground up to build solutions for climate resilience and build voice and power around those solutions I met Jemima's colleagues in Scotland a couple of years ago because Scotland also has a climate justice fund and we as climate justice funds we're part of a very small sisterhood at the time and started talking about ways that we could be quite an honor that that we were able to move that collaboration in a direction that is supporting Scotland's aspirations to really elevate the conversation around loss and damage and to demonstrate what it looks like to fund loss and damage and to do justice to the tremendous injustice that loss and damage represents so we are the space where the first million pounds of the Scottish funding is being deployed as Jemima mentioned we've already made grants in Bangladesh building on work Cedar Ruff has done with with several people on this call in the past as an example you know we support Ipsa young power and social action of a Bangladeshi NGO to work with community teams very small-scale volunteer teams and communities that are contending with the climate force displacement and those teams are developing methods for identifying how to from Scotland of figuring out who in their community most needs which interventions and this is often rebuilding and relocating homes on the coast of Bangladesh this is some of what our partners they are working on another example is in the Pacific where our partners UUSC are coordinating a big regional NGO coalition that's comprised of national organizations and national coalitions of grassroots organizations organizations who are working in similar ways to Ipsa they're they're sending youth out to assess loss and damage at a community scale and facilitate conversations with communities to understand what is that loss and damage are really mean and what does it what does it need in terms of a response at a very local level again this is this is very significant losses and damages this is losses of people's homes it is loss of livelihood it is ancestral burial grounds that are getting taken over by the ocean this is this is not simple and we are so honored to to be able to play a role in supporting the community members who are figuring out how to tackle these not simple challenges you know as Jemima did I'll speak a little bit about where we're going next to CJRF at the moment we've deployed about a half of a million pounds from Scotland that sits with us and we are working to identify partners in Malawi so that we'll have an example grant there in in Africa as noted there's you know been a very unusual storms off the southeast coast of Africa over the the last few years and communities are getting hit not once but multiple times and this this pattern that's new with climate change causes new patterns of loss and damage and causes more challenges in recovering and coming back from those losses and damages this idea of layering initiatives that that comes up in the iid papers is one that resonates very much with us in our experience that there's not one solution in these contexts there's a need for support for communities from a range of different policies a range of different actors and figuring out how to have those in place quickly soon so that that we don't let all of this loss and damage grow so that that Malawi grant is coming we're we're also working on pioneering some participatory methods around deploying some of this funding of building a participatory board that can bring expertise from the ground level from the community level all the way to the global level to make decisions around how how should this funding go so that some of that local wisdom is relevant at at other layers of of this this loss and damage process i also wanted to speak briefly about philanthropy one of the the huge successes of the scottish commitment to cjrf at the cop last year was that several private foundations stepped forward to support the efforts to create a loss and damage facility those foundations actually are not pulling their funding with us at cjrf they are supporting cop activist activism through some other mechanisms and and they're working with the climate vulnerable forum to build out a loss and damage initiative within their fund as well so so we're just really delighted that that this has enabled a kind of the support of an alliance at the global level of a number of different funding opportunities and for channeling that knowledge and experience that we're able to support at the ground level into the activism and advocacy at the global level so the next step as jemima mentioned the scott this the scotland's hosting a conference that i think will be a really important stepping stone to the next cop we're also working with our partners to make sure that early lessons from our grants are available and are communicable at a number of different scales and we want to you know further explore some of what's explored in this iid paper of identifying what is really needed and what are the most powerful and impactful and participatory and equitable mechanisms for deciding how loss and damage funding is deployed how we move it very quickly and how we accelerate momentum around this this agenda in a way that really supports people so i i look forward for the discussion on this and thank you to everyone thank you so much heather and and jemima really wonderful to hear from you about um you know more more detail about the the kind of pioneering effort that the scottish government and cgrf are taking together to really mobilize action on the ground to address these multi-dimensional risks and great to hear that some of the findings of of our paper resonated with you in that practical action that you're taking we are now going to move into the the next phase of this event and we will be hearing from several of the authors who have contributed to the paper and they will be presenting a very brief snapshot of some of the top nine findings given the time we only have about four or five minutes from from each of the authors to summarize what are really rich uh and uh informative chapters and so i will be uh quickly passing over to my uh colleague ritu barad was who's going to tell you a little bit about the approach that we took in doing this research that has resulted in this paper written thank you so much saman and bomb namaste and good morning good afternoon and good evening to all of you uh to so just to quickly start off uh this this discussion around the key finding i'll just quickly talk about the process and the purpose behind this research and the purpose behind this research was to catalyze deeper collective understanding of loss and damage risk and the possible solutions around it and when they started out this research we were clear about one thing that the real experts in loss and damage are the people and practitioners who are already anticipating hoping managing and supporting recovery from climate impacts causing loss and damage so along the thick head and id we therefore adopted uh both top down as well as a bottom up approach to research consultation and evidence generation with a view to co-develop pathways to tackling climate change loss and damage and for this we adopted a three-pound approach and i'll quickly talk through talk you through them the first approach was deliberative dialogue process which claire also talked about so we organized a series of five deliberative dialogue before and after cop with the range of stakeholders from these developed countries small island development states NGOs civil societies and other actors from vulnerable developing countries to unpack the issues and co-create solutions to some of the critical questions facing loss and damage discourse such as what are the realities of climate change loss and damage and what should we consider in responding to it what kind of action and support are needed to tackling loss and damage how can we deliver those action and support and how it can be financed so we were looking at some of these critical questions and trying to unpack solutions around them through these series of deliberative dialogue and along with coming out responses to these questions these deliberative dialogue also helped in creating so creating a space for vulnerable countries to share issues and challenges they were facing on loss and damage and communicate their priorities for action creating a common platform for diverse stakeholders to have concrete deliberations on appropriate policies needed and how to deliver them on the ground and contribute to changing that narrative for urgency to act on loss and damage now and the need for practical solutions the second approach that we took under this research was to generate local level evidence by providing an opportunity to the NGOs the civil societies the universities and experts from global south to tell their stories provide evidence on the challenges that they are facing and illustrate the practical responses and the support needed to address those in whatever context they were facing those impacts in and for this we created a south south capacity building and a mentoring approach and each of those authors were then paired with mentors to support self-learning and these stories were then published in the form of case study compendium on loss and damage from which we drew a lot of evidence for this research paper that we're sharing today and the whole process and approach helped in establishing an approach for generating local level evidence and knowledge setting a process for south south collaborative learning support and experience sharing on climate change loss and damage issues and co-generating compelling evidence from diverse contexts to raise priority of loss and damage along with these two we also established a strategic advisor and friends comprising of loss and damage experts opinion makers and development actors and academicians to guide the whole research process and this group met at least five four times last year and provided recommendations and inputs on the framing and the issues to be covered in the deliberative dialogue and the wider research and they really added a huge value to this whole research work by providing strategic direction and guidance and acting as a critical sounding board in relation to the overall strategy and approach for this research and they also helped in bringing the knowledge from different domains of expertise to raise the ambition and to accelerate action on tackling loss and damage and along with these bottom up approaches we also complemented them with the use of structured review of data and analysis in the existing literature consultations with experts and LDC advocacy experts working on loss and damage issues so you know the whole purpose behind explaining this process is to explain to you as to where we have brought this research into this this paper and along with this whole process of research we also had a lot of co-benefit that was created as part of this whole process so back to you Simon. Thank you very much Ritu. The first part of our paper gives a brief overview of the history of loss and damage as it's been addressed within the international arena with a particular focus on looking at the UNFCCC negotiations and the way that that's developed over the years. Partly we took a look at that in order to ground this analysis but also to argue that given the political let's say challenges around achieving consensus on the issue of loss and damage to make the case that there is a pragmatic approach that can be taken that grounded in these concrete realities and I just want to note the contribution of our colleague Camilla Moore who works in the climate the climate change groups ambition team which supports the LDC negotiators in the UNFCCC and Camilla is our lead support to them on loss and damage and really brought an incredible clear analysis of how this issue is being dealt there so just wanted to acknowledge her contribution that chapter then leads into a quite detailed analysis of how we are understanding the challenge of loss and damage both in terms of the impacts of loss and damage that that happen increasingly every day but also as they're you know affecting people of different different places along the scale of intersectionality and vulnerability and risk and and how those change over time and I'll pass over to Anna Carthy who was the lead author for our chapters on the loss and damage risks issue. Thanks Simon. Hi everybody and my name is Anna I'm a researcher in IIT's climate change group and as Simon said I'm going to talk about chapters three and four of our paper which look at the nature of loss and damage risks so the risk of experiencing loss and damage is made up of several factors hazards exposure vulnerability and of course the limits to adaptation we don't have time right now for me to delve into them all so I'll just very briefly mention a few key things that I've discussed in the paper on vulnerability so vulnerability to loss and damage is intersectional and intersectionality describes how multiple and different axes for oppression interact to jointly shape human experience so these axes can include gender, race, caste, age, sexual orientation and disability so narrow approaches to understanding loss and damage tend to consider people who experience loss and damage as a homogenous group calling them simply vulnerable people and ignoring these intersectional differences but it's really the long term structural conditions that produce vulnerability to loss and damage along intersectional lines so we focus in this chapter on how vulnerability results from political marginalization and on the need to address the structural root causes of vulnerability and we also in this chapter ask the question of whose responsibility is loss and damage so there's a common theme in the way that most global north countries frame this question instead of accepting responsibility for causing climate change through historical emissions or for creating and reproducing vulnerability in many global side countries through processes of colonization, imperialism, resource exploitation, structural adjustment and debt they often shift responsibility to global side countries themselves by suggesting that populations vulnerabilities result from their own institutions and development pathways so this all serves to justify rich countries avoidance of the question of liability so while this paper focuses on what affected countries of the global side can do to address loss and damage practice this does not imply that the responsibility for dealing with loss and damage is theirs loss and damage is fundamentally an issue of climate injustice and there's an urgent need for countries of the global north that have caused climate change to accept and act upon the responsibility to support those in the global side through experience and so I move on to chapter four which is the next slide please do yet and in chapter four we identified seven key features of loss and damage risk and what implications they have for taking action to address loss and damage so I'm going to briefly run through the seven features and then pass along to Nora so the first key feature is that climate hazards are unprecedented and this means that losses and damages can't be addressed solely on the basis of our knowledge of past trends action should be based on robust assessments of potential climate risks across a range of possible futures feature two speaks to the dynamic nature of loss and damage it is happening now and it's escalating over time so it must be addressed urgently so effective action must be based on regular risk assessments that involve affected communities feature number three emphasizes that loss and damage risks can't be viewed in isolation from each other climate hazards are increasingly occurring either at the same time or in close succession and this can cause cascading losses and damages as recovery from one shock might not even be completed before the next one hits so actions to address losses and damages must be ratcheted up over time to tackle these compounding impacts the paper discusses feature number four and about marginalized groups being disproportionately affected with relation to intersectionality gender racism and disability and it concludes that action to address loss and damage must prioritize marginalized people in the global site and also ensure that support is delivered in an equitable way feature five discusses how current methods for estimating loss and damage tend to focus only on financial loss and damage and beyond that they only capture loss and damage incurred by wealthier social groups because they focus on assets wealth infrastructure and GDP so that approach obscures the losses and damages incurred by marginalized groups particularly informal sector loss and damage and non-economic loss and damage so actions must assess losses and damages in terms that matter to the poor and marginalized people and must prioritize the losses of well-being faced by those excluded groups the sixth feature highlights that efforts to assess loss and damage risks must seek to understand the different risk perceptions of different people so actions to address loss and damage should use bottom-up approaches that are grounded in people's values and in people's lived experiences and account for the power relations that determine whose voices are prioritized in decision-making at the end of the day and lastly the seventh and final feature explains that actions to address loss and damage must devolve resources authority and agency to the local level investment in loss and damage response is obviously needed at all levels but it must prioritize local leadership by those who understand and have experienced loss and damage so all of these seven features have implications for how to undertake actions to address loss and damage and after that extremely brief run through of the seven features I'll now pass along to Nora thanks so much for listening and I look forward to the Q&A thank you Anna I'm just going to share my screen really quickly so please bear with me uh great I'm going to get started and thank you Anna for handing over to me so um addressing loss and damage many solutions already exist that have the potential to address loss and damage effectively however no one solution will work to address loss and damage climate impacts and risks are increasing in frequency and intensity compounding overlapping with each other leaving residual risk in their wake and interacting with underlying causes of vulnerability given this and building off of what Anna just spoke about addressing loss and damage requires a comprehensive approach that considers the complexity of different risks and the wide range of possible impacts that may occur over the short medium and long term horizons so the concept of layering can help tackle this complexity of risk layering is when a suite of interventions rather than a single intervention but when a suite of interventions that are chosen to tackle both short term shocks and address risks that will occur over the longer term are implemented in parallel and layered this approach will not only support vulnerable communities and households to address the range of different climate impacts that they might face over time but also ensure that the limits to adaptation that when limits to adaptation are breached the inadequacy of one measure can be offset by complementary measures so what might this look like in practice very brief example where limits to adaptation have been reached measures such as social protection programs can act as social safety nets that allow households to better absorb shock and recover from loss and damage interventions such as nature based solutions and flood proofing can help households manage compounding risks they face such as flooding the integration of early warning systems community-based disaster risk reduction anticipatory cash transfers and emergency response and recovery measures around building back better can help households deal with the immediate and residual risks that they face and planned relocation and livelihood diversification can be initiated when new limits to adaptation are reached resulting in areas perhaps becoming uninhabitable or unsuitable for particular livelihood of course how any measures implemented and delivered can hugely affect its impact measures can be effective sustainable and socially impactful if they're implemented in conjunction with certain good practice attributes i will now go through 10 attributes that we have identified in this paper and very briefly uh one map multi-dimensional vulnerability uh vulnerability mapping which max maps exposure sensitivity and coping capacity can provide crucial information for decision makers when developing plans and identifying gaps or opportunities in addressing loss and damage two communicate climate risks effectively climate risk communication is most effective when it is communicated to those who need the information most in a bottom-up manner made appropriate for the intended audience by removing jargon and translating it into local dialects and packaged with clear advice on what to do and support services that are available three act early before risks become disasters where possible measures in the suite of interventions must work to promote prevention of preparedness pre-hazard interventions that actively shift the narrative from reactive emergency management to disaster risk reduction four and very crucial empower communities to lead local responses local and national governments alongside NGOs should consider creating and training community-based disaster management risk reduction and emergency response teams bringing these communities bring with them locally specific and often innovative knowledge skills and solutions with the adequate empowerment education financial and technical support communities can lead responses to tackling and addressing loss and damage five ensure measures are based on locally defined priorities of people at risk if community needs are not considered it will not only impact long-term sustainability initiatives but it can also cause negative social impacts maladaptation and additional loss and damage participatory processes and approaches are often best placed to assess the loss and damage needs of vulnerable communities six sorry address underlying causes of vulnerability non-climatic drivers can become underlying risk factors because of this in highly exposed or highly vulnerable communities loss and damage risks are likely to remain no matter what forms of adaptation action are taken given this action should include measures that address chronic drivers of vulnerability such as poverty food insecurity and poor infrastructure seven take a whole of government approach the issues of climate change are often confined within the remit of specific government agencies or departments that actually work in silos however addressing loss and damage requires that climate risk is mainstreamed into all sectors and calls for the collaboration and coordination across ministries and between different levels of government especially empowering local government eight include the whole of society as well effective coordination of planning and action by multiple agencies and organizations is vital this includes the government community representatives cbo's national and international NGOs donor and finance providers the media and the private sector nine be ecologically sound and harness the role of nature in an effort to address loss and damage ecosystem should be left intact and where possible rehabilitated this is important not only because of community's reliance upon ecological services and resources but because nature can protect communities against climate change impacts and finally always account for non economic forms of loss and damage decision makers must ensure that policies and practices not only recognize and address non economic loss and damage but support communities in building resilience to avoid such nails and ensure measures do not incur further loss and damage through non economic loss and damage and with that that's the end of my chapter and I would like to hand over to Clara virtually to conclude with financing. Hello I'm Clara Gallagher I'm a researcher at IID focusing on climate finance and I was responsible for writing this final financing chapter of our working paper so the aims of this chapter then were to draw together different principles or characteristics that should guide loss and damage so that it can respond to the dynamic and broad spectrum of loss and damage impacts and risks. We reviewed six different sources of finance that could be relevant to addressing loss and damage in the absence of a dedicated loss and damage financing facility and this stems really from the thinking that no single source or flow of finance can provide all of the complex characteristics needed to address loss and damage in all of its forms. We wanted to consider how the complex flows of finance from these sources could be layered to address loss and damage and finally to draw on some examples of delivery mechanisms that could be used to address loss and damage in different ways and which could channel appropriate types of finance to the people and places that need it most. So coming back to this idea of layering financial tools and products and throughout the paper we've said that at different moments of a loss and damage event different kinds of support are needed to address economic loss and damage, non economic loss and damage impacts from slow onset events or from rapid onset events all of which are seeking to prevent the burden of financing falling upon the poorest and most vulnerable and most badly affected households that did least to actually cause climate change and so rooting all this firmly in principles of climate justice. Different responses would likely require different types of finance so taking the example of a rapid onset event like a cyclone this might require initially anticipatory risk finance before the shock occurs so that might be index linked insurance or social safety net payments to highly vulnerable households. These might then need to be followed up by the rapid deployment of emergency response finance after the shock has happened from a pool fund or a contingency fund. This is you know often what we see is the humanitarian finance which in turn will need to be followed up by long term support for climate resilient recovery and reconstruction in the form of grants or or even zero interest loans from development finance providers as well as their delivery of long term support to address physical and mental traumas and the livelihood needs of survivors through national public services and this might be funded by the domestic budget process. So to have each of these layers in place and and able to swing into action at the right moment and reaching right people is clearly no small task and it's hugely complex but thinking through these challenges you know how to get different flows of finance to work to address loss and damage how to get the finance to the local level to those enduring loss and damage to those about to experience loss and damage can still be valuable without jeopardizing this long-term goal of new and additional dedicated loss and damage financing. So so one thing that we were suggesting is that there are existing mechanisms that can carry innovations to make them relevant to supporting action on loss and damage and in the paper we look at the Ethiopian Productive Safety Net program and devolve delivery mechanisms like the community-driven development approach used in the Philippines Kalahi CID SS program. Things like making social protection portable so you have the ability to take your social protection payments with you would support action on loss and damage by enabling social protection recipients to make choices about leaving an area that might expose them to an upcoming shock and we also suggest that another approach might be to pool and disperse funds to address loss and damage from a solidarity fund. So this could be held nationally and disperse collect different flows of finance and disperse finance of different types for different purposes to national and local authorities you know or directly to communities depending on the most appropriate level of subsidiarity for whichever implementation whichever action is trying to be implemented at the time. The disbursements could be made either through existing delivery mechanisms such as you know the social protection schemes I mentioned community driven development programs or or devolved climate finance mechanisms and you know the solidarity fund is not expected to do every job. Employing the skills to manage its own insurance program or social protection system would needlessly duplicate capabilities that are found in other parts of government. Instead the solidarity fund should be designed to support entities across government and across society that already manage relevant delivery mechanisms but to enable them to become more effective at addressing loss and damage impacts and risks through their work and connecting the appropriate finance layers to each of the interventions needed to address different forms of impact and risk and also playing that coordinating role for action across actors and across different levels of governance. So this kind of national or subnational fund management could be modeled on the enhanced direct access process that devolves decision-making on climate action away from the board of the GCF at the Green Climate Fund and into a national or subnational decision-making body to then on grant or on lend or on blend financial products to things that they are choosing. These suggestions that you know I've listed for the last few minutes that they're not without significant challenges and we can clearly see that the volumes of finance to address loss and damage are hugely insufficient as they currently stand and that we are seeing that the standards that different entities are expected to meet in order to access funds directly under climate finance are prohibitively time consuming resource intensive and difficult to do. However, suitable finance to support action to address loss and damage is urgently needed and yet in this chapter we spent some time thinking through different options for supporting financing flows to reach those that need it most at the right time and in the right way all supported by principles of climate justice. So I'm looking forward to hearing from respondents and from you all about how our ideas on layering actions and finance sit and using different existing mechanisms or solidarity friend approach to channel the money to those enduring and addressing loss and damage. So thank you very much. Thank you very much to Clara and to all of the other authors. Thank you so much for giving us those insights into the findings of the paper. We're now going to move on to get some responses and some insights from our panel of guests. We have a distinguished panel of people who are really at the forefront of thinking and action to address loss and damage. We will hear from Professor Emily Boyd who's a professor at Lund University in Sweden and also an author of the latest IPCC report that relates to loss and damage. We're also going to hear from Hafiz Khan who is a lawyer in the high court of Bangladesh but also a lead negotiator in the least developed countries group on loss and damage and member of the Warsaw International Mechanism Executive Committee. From Celimo Hook who is the director of IKAD in Bangladesh and also an advisor to the Climate Vulnerable Forum amongst many other initiatives looking at loss and damage and also to Emeline Siale Ilolahia otherwise known as Siale who is the executive director of the Pacific Islands Association of NGOs. First I'd like to invite you Emily to give us a few thoughts on where you think we are, what's the current state of play based on the research that you've been doing and how you think we need to move forward in addressing this challenging issue. Thank you so much and thank you and it's good to see everybody here today. I just say a few things I'm just going to mention something on the IPCC and some gaps that we've identified and then some next steps. So I just wanted to come back to the IPCC is obviously it's not a research project it's an assessment of the current state of science and understanding and I think it's really important to go back to that and highlight that things that have already come up here today but really within the context of the IPCC we see that global warming of 1.1 degree has already caused dangerous and widespread loss and damage so that's something that's stated in the IPCC and that's disrupting both communities and billions of people around the world but also nature in our natural environment and despite adaptation efforts so that's really important to remember. The IPCC identified also that non-economic loss and damage is associated with climate hazards and a growing vulnerability so several chapters in particular chapter eight on livelihoods and sustainability identified examples of non-economic loss and damage and that's things that have come up here today but aspects of changing culture, loss of way of life, quality of life, effects on mental health, effects on people's livelihood, land, agency and so on and what's new here is that this is really being articulated in the scientific literature now so whilst there's obviously many many many examples out there of losses and damages of small L&D the scientific community are just starting in the last 10 years to really capture this and start to really try to figure out what this is so this is from a scientific perspective and that obviously makes a difference and when it comes to policy in terms of communicating with policy about what the science is finding and then in terms of the future that the near-term risks of losses and damages are highest for certain groups and communities that are vulnerable around the world, particularly hotspots and particular areas for example along coastal areas in coastlines but we also see sea level rise obviously also going into the future affecting progressively making people at risk and despite mitigation efforts which is woefully inadequate at the moment still with mitigation efforts we're going to see this risk playing out for communities and the most vulnerable communities so these are things that we say are obvious but they have been stated by the IPCC so we have to take the movie seriously and take that forward into policy so in terms of gaps we also see gaps in terms of identifying practical or practice around losses and damages particularly non-economic loss and damage at different scales so your work has started to contribute to that and I thought it was really interesting the way that you've incorporated new methods to co-creating evidence around these I think that is really critical and important going forward we still need more evidence on limits to adaptation what they are and how they are played out so documenting evidence going forward and while it's not enough just to do science it is still important to have that going along beside action beside policy to help support that process and also to be thinking that we're also documenting this for future generations so whilst it feels like that's sad and dystopian to some extent it's still important to have a record of what's happening for the future and that then plays into the governance component the governance of finance really critical we see in terms of adaptation constraints of which we talked about now that you know loss and damage is sort of an outcome of the failure to adapt sufficiently fast and at scale there across regions governance is one aspect which is a barrier everywhere and finance to some extent so that's something we can find everywhere so institutions policies constraints there need to be looked at and regulation so we will come to this I think with some of my other panelists but you know what kind of regulation do we need to connect this into how does this connect to different kinds of actions court cases and so on that is that is and will draw on this understanding of loss and damage for them so in terms of going forward then continuing to develop non-economic loss and damage documenting that starting with people who are at the forefront of risk measurement and development of measurement which connects to the evidence but also governance and and the kinds of mechanisms that are developing but what kind of mechanisms need to and I think there is a need here for capacity building for policy community to understand this connection between the science and policy here what loss and damage actually is so I think I'll leave it at that hand over to my fellow panelists to comment further thanks. Thank you so much Emily I'd like to now invite Ciale from Pyango to share your experiences in the Pacific and to share the experiences of community members and members of your association who are confronting the reality of loss and damage now on a daily basis almost okay maybe we can move on to Ciale while we await while we await Ciale. Sure thank you very much Simon apologies for my sore throat so let me start with a personal anecdote I just spent a few weeks in Europe first and born attending the UNFCC subsidiary bodies meeting and then in the UK in London and the day I left London to fly back to Dhaka was the hottest day ever in the UK. Heathrow airport temperature was well over 40 degrees and about 28 other places in the UK had 40 degrees the IPCC projections for the UK said that would happen in 2050 it happened in July 2022 then when I flew across the world to Bangladesh my flight which is a Bangladesh Airways Bangladesh Beeman it lands in Celet in the northeast of the country first because we have mostly Celeti passengers coming from the UK and the plane empties out in Celet and then after a short stop comes to Dhaka but as we were flying over the northeastern part of the country I saw the remnants of a one in a hundred year flash flood that we had from the neighboring country flowing water at an untimely time of the year didn't usually come this fast and although Bangladesh has a very good record on saving lives from cyclones and floods we can't save livelihoods we can't save assets the events still cause devastation and a lot of loss and damage and millions of people are still homeless haven't they able to go back to their homes and so this is just an illustration of the fact that losses and damages attributable to human induced climate change because the temperature has already gone above 1.1 degrees centigrade due to emissions of greenhouse gases is happening already and it's a global phenomenon I can cite cases from other cases from Europe wildfires China wave all happening at the same time it's a global phenomenon right now and so to me that is an indication of the urgency with which we have to help the victims to me the number one priority now is not doing research on what do we mean by loss and damage anymore but helping the victims finding them working with them and finding a way to assist them that to me is the the moral imperative of why we need to engage in this and there are victims everywhere and so one of the things that we are trying to do is to develop national capacities to understand the issue to build on what we already have because nowhere is a blank sheet there are already some things happening maybe very inadequate but they're there so how do we build on that and particularly building on the a long history or relatively long history of working at local level with local communities on community based adaptation and then locally led adaptation we have a very good network still inadequate but it's still a very good network of vulnerable communities at the front lines who have connected with each other with whom we can now engage and develop learn from them first and then learn together with them on what needs to be done not tell them what needs to be done they don't need us to go and tell them we need to learn from them they are the frontline in terms of both suffering the impacts but also in terms of knowledge on how to deal with those impacts because they are the ones with the problem and they are the ones who know how to deal with it and so to me that becomes a high priority and my center is doing work in Bangladesh we are working with many different actors including the government of Bangladesh who are setting up a national mechanism on loss and damage using our own resources we're not waiting for the rest of the world to come and rescue us we we do have our own funds inadequate but we have something and we can start with that we did that with adaptation we will now do that with loss and damage and we are also reaching out to other least developed countries through the network that we run it's called the LDC universities consortium on climate change LUCCC or luck for short and we've already initiated activities with our colleagues faculty members young researchers in each of these countries to initially do some scoping on the actions that are already available and in place and then how do we build on that to make them fit for purpose for a much much more threatening global situation the one in 100 year flood mentioned in Bangladesh is not going to come 100 years later it's going to come within another four or five years and we need to be prepared for that and so to me I see my clientele as the vulnerable communities and reaching them talking to them learning from them finding ways to connect with them and support them is the highest priority and I find I must say a bit too much emphasis on designing the perfect system at a global level and using all our brain power to do that and answer you know theoretical questions when the practical is staring us in the face and we're not doing anything about it and to me that is really getting our priorities mixed up if I can just end with a comment on the most recent development in the G7 initiated by Germany something they call the global shield which is a development from the previous initiative that they had they called insure resilience which was an insurance based scheme they came to realize after a few years that insurance doesn't work for everybody and it particularly doesn't work for the poor risk they acknowledge that now they didn't in the beginning they thought it was the silver bullet but they now acknowledge that it isn't and therefore they need to go beyond insurance and they have come up with this new name called the global shield I'm not sure exactly what it consists of but my challenge to them has been I had an opportunity to speak with them in bond is when is the first euro going to reach a victim of climate change and have no answer for that they are spending all their time designing the perfect foolproof mechanism and then they'll decide a few countries to start it with and by the time any victim gets any money it will be a good 10 years in my prediction so to me time is of the essence and we need to be in emergency mode on anything we do and the criteria by which anything we do gets judged is are we able to help a real victim on the ground and if we're not able to do that then I would say we are not doing the right thing and we should rethink what we do thank you I'll stop there many thanks indeed Salim valuable insights and a real call to action which I really appreciate and what you were saying there about the need to get money into the hands of affected community members is something I know that resonates with see Ali I wonder if see Ali is there see Ali are you there hello see Ali we're welcome you I welcome you to to give your thoughts on the the loss and damage challenge that you're facing me in communities across the Pacific and what you think needs to be done thank you thank you very much Simon and thank you to my colleagues who have shared this amazing knowledge paper that you know acknowledging the those that has put it together and compiling it I commend the structure of the report really although it's how many pages are long but it's really easy to to navigate through in terms of how it's being structured I think my sharing will really be very much from a Pacific civil society perspective and I would like just to draw on perhaps a few points one is the coping mechanisms of ours of our people of our Pacific people is one that we have acknowledged although that you know we talk about loss and damages climate change is no longer something of the future it's already here and now and people are living it but it's interesting to see that the the the spirituality and faith of the Pacific people and I'm sure it's across the globe in various spectrum is something that we often find that it's not being recognized as part of how we see the coping of our people we we have seen that to be very much in terms of how people are related to the relationship between their lives and their livelihood and the environment and in the Pacific very much are ocean we have also see the the value-based and I think that this paper has a touch a bit on that but it's really the challenges that we face in terms of we started to put certain value into our our natural resources and oftentimes it being used to as part of our negotiating or part of a bargaining system that being brought to light of extracting industries and how we have seen businesses particularly when it comes to climate change where the financing of of loss and damages are being also brought into be part of the conversations where we see you know development banks we see you know the businesses are being looked at as a financing mechanisms as well but then where do we draw the line when it comes to are they really interested in exploring solutions for loss and damages for our Pacific or are they really interested in more in the you know businesses where very much into the exploring of our natural resources logging you know deep sea mining is a huge organization going on in the Pacific so those are the things that that we often find that perhaps we need to look into the value-based much a little bit much more into that in terms of how our our economy and in the and the model that we use to define you know our development in terms of the anticipatory approaches much more into the humanitarian for example do we have the the financial capacity to bring that to our communities so they could define what does that look like for their for their response in their resilience there's a lot of discussions and I'm really glad to see that in the paper around the debt how does this in the Pacific for example is this quite an issue the high debt of our of our government not just because of the impact of climate change in many you know cyclones and so many other crises but also now make it even worse with COVID-19 for example and where do we see the financing of loss and damages in in in the sense of COVID where it you know we need to follow where the money goes to fully understand how does the investment in in in providing the solutions for loss and damages we are very much in our community in the Pacific we don't fully see that whole accountability mechanisms of holding you know the government in countries that are much more perhaps contributing to the pollution so far of our planet earth and where do we see that accountability in terms of providing compensations which is which is very much you know and I had a topic in the paper that quite interesting for me to to go through in terms of that political dynamics but at the same time if we are not addressing it it's like that we are we are talking about so many things and yet we don't we still find it's being contested by those that are much more capable of paying up we have a lot of commitment that we have seen in the humanitarian sector for example the grand bargain in terms of supporting localizations is still not there and then when it comes to the development scale of SDGs we have seen a lot of our Pacific communities reporting on their voluntary national review the implementation is still very much the not progressing well so where do we see that comparison to how we see loss and damages and the conversation that is being leading and to finish off I must say that at the global level we still hear the conversations that the voices of our Pacific people particularly our civil society in the Pacific very much absent and so where do we see the solution developed to address loss and damages without those that are really leaving the impact of climate change I'll leave it there Simon thank you very much thank you so much Ciali wonderful to to hear from you and and to for you to note those those challenges I think all of them extremely pertinent and we have tried to address some of them in our paper but much more work to be done and thank you for joining us at such a late hour from your home in the Pacific so we will move on quickly now to Hafiz Khan Hafiz as a member of the loss and damage countries negotiating team and working on loss and damage but also from your perspective as a researcher and lawyer in Bangladesh what are you thinking about the the loss and damage issue at the moment and where we are and and what action needs to be taken thanks Simon good evening from Dhaka Bangladesh colleagues I do applaud for my background noise which is unavoidable because it's Azan time prior time here in Dhaka so first of all I would like to appreciate IID to organize this very much timely debate and if we look at the title of the debate that calls actions to respond recover and then we use the risk related to loss and damage it itself the title itself identifies the emergency to take actions on loss and damage what Dr. Salim was talking about about the emergency actions I also like to appreciate the authors of the IID's working paper and their beautiful presentations specifically I do see this report is would be very useful due to their context specificity I would say because this report focused on the vulnerabilities and impacts in particularly loose developing countries and sorry Hafiz we keep losing you yeah I'm sorry my internet is really bad today so I was talking about the community participation so let me brief you to my difficulties so the IID's working paper also identified the needs to empower the communities so that they can take part in the decision making process even in the implemented implementation process effectively effective community participation it would be very important secondly I would like to suggest that at the local level we need to take the socio-ecological approach because it is the communities it is the individual it is the overall society and it needs to be taken a broader ecosystem approach so socio-ecological approach is needed to identify the needs of the communities ecosystems at the same time to develop the further policy framework but colleagues IID working paper can also think about the chapter on the technical assistance and capacity building that's what I mean it is missing here I think but in terms of issues particularly mobilization particularly to access the funds to the vulnerable communities what Professor Salim was talking the victims needs to get financial technical support but this working paper highlighted the some of the issues like delivery mechanism colleagues I would like to say the sources of finance that's what we are discussing now more I think so they are there are five financial entities of the unit proposed in now also Paris say given just we need to create a window or a process to access financial loss and loss but what is the challenge is to delivery those financial resources to the vulnerable about the delivery mechanism and that that that is how also the negotiator from developing vulnerable countries they are proposing to establish a financial facility that facility can really useful to mobilize the financial resources and and to provide and to develop further delivery processes so how the vulnerable committees can access the fund immediately in terms of financing for loss and damage proactive response is needed at the same time reactive response is needed thirdly the emergency response to response to emergencies during any events that might be from slow onset events or from a sudden onset events but next that needs to be supported immediately that can be technical support that can be financial support so delivery mechanism is quite important so colleague at you we know that at this moment at the global level we are trying to set up a agree on the institutional structure of Santiago network that is quite important for the COP 27 so that needs to be an effective institutional structure so that this network can provide technical assistance assistance to the vulnerable communities second issue is the vulnerable developing countries what I said we propose for a financial facility that can mobilize the funding and also can develop financial right financial mechanism to support the victims from the loss and damage resulting from climate change with that said very much looking forward to working with the academics also also CSOS and negotiators we need to build a collaborative effort so that we can influence the ongoing policy processes let me leave it there thank you for hearing me again I do apologize for my poor internet connectivity thank you so much no problem at all happy thank you so much I think we caught most of the important points that you've raised there and particularly the emphasis you placed on the need for really effective community participation in understanding risk and decision making on the actions that need to be taken in many respects that is one of the primary recommendations that we are making throughout this paper and that is that you know when we look at loss and damage we really need to acknowledge and take into account the fact that there are very diverse forms of impact losses and damages themselves and risks of loss and damage for different groups and particularly for those marginalised groups and people living in poverty and that those vulnerabilities to losses and damages are really shaped by their particular context and the intersectional nature of the risks that they face and that we can only really tackle loss and damage and and deliver responses support recovery and deal with those immediate and longer term risks that they face if we take that that those diverse forms of vulnerability and risk into account and that needs to needs to have a locally led community focused approach that in which those vulnerabilities and risks are really taken seriously there are a number of questions that have been raised in the chat about how we can do that I think that's still a very open question one thing that we've been exploring in India we've worked that we've been leading in relation to social protection there is the importance of bringing together robust science informed data on climate risks with community understandings about risk and what is needed to address the risks that they face and bringing those two forms of knowledge together to make robust plans that can help to accommodate and to address uncertainty and uncertainty is really one of the big issues that I think we all need to try and wrestle with when thinking about loss and damage the uncertainty of how climate change is going to impact different groups in complex societies over time particularly as loss and damages mount and as risks and impacts compound one another tackling that uncertainty through a bottom up approach is one of the principal things that we're recommending we should try and try and tackle thank you to everybody who has sent in a question in the Q&A I'm sorry that we didn't get time to address all of those but we will take a look at them thank you to all of our panelists who have provided fascinating and really rich insights into this loss and damage challenge and and how we can take practical action to address it thanks for raising some of the gaps that we need to be thinking about in terms of research and evidence generation and policy thanks also to to Jemima and Heather for your insightful keynote presentations and of course to the whole IED team for your inputs into this paper and for your presentation so I'd like to thank everybody who's participated from around the world and I wish you a good morning good afternoon good evening and good night and hope to see you all again very soon goodbye


Narcissists are not real people. They are not real or genuine. They are not authentic.  Whatever they think you might find desirable or attractive. Whatever they think you like or are interested in. They use you as a model and they then simulate or copy you. They have no identity of their own. They have no characteristics or qualities of their own. They are just whatever they think you want them to be. But that's not really them either. It's a simulation. It's an imitation of a situational process. They are pretending. They are giving you a deceptive appearance. A mistaken impression. They are giving you the appearance of feeling or possessing an emotional quality. They are engaged in an imaginative game or fantasy.  It is designed to deliberately cause you to believe something that is not true for their personal game. But that's not really them. They disowned themselves a long time ago and now they no longer have any connection to their true selves. All that is left is their false self, which can only imitate to deceive you. It has to trick you into believing that it is real. If they can get you to believe that it is real, you are then handing your power over to them. They then have power over you. They have the ability to direct or influence your behaviour and the course of events. But once you have developed the awareness that you are not dealing with a real person, they no longer have the power to affect you. Because you no longer believe in them. You no longer validate their false self or the illusion that they are trying to portray. When you meditate on your own power and on your own truth, they can no longer deceive you. They can no longer trick you into believing that they are something real. The narcissist lives in a fake alternate reality or fake world with their own interpretations or distorted meanings, which are not according with truth or fact. They are opposed to or denying of the truth or facts. They are living a lie and this is intended to deceive you. They have to remain detached from reality and existing in this alternate reality or fake world with their own interpretations or distorted meanings to prevent themselves from being exposed. The false self was created to prevent their lies from being exposed. It was created to prevent anyone from revealing their true objectionable nature since the creation of their false self. They gradually became more and more disconnected from their true selves which they no longer have any connection to. Now all that exists is their false self which doesn't really exist either as it isn't real. This has left them detached from their soul. It has left them detached from the spiritual or immaterial part of them which has left them unable to create their own emotional or intellectual energy. This has an effect on their minds. It has an effect on their way of thinking. It has left them unable to feel inspiration, feeling, emotion, passion or intensity. They are not fully conscious or aware as they have lost connection to their soul. They are living but they are not really alive. They have lost their humanity. They have lost their better qualities of humankind such as kindness or compassion. They have lost the condition of what distinguishes us from inorganic matter. They have lost their ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. They have lost the ability to communicate with their higher self or with their true self because they no longer have any connection to their soul. They have dismissed the intelligence of their soul as being inadequate, unacceptable or faulty so that they can continue to engage in their fantasy world. They have rejected their own soul and now they can no longer receive fulfillment from anyone or anything because they have no soul to connect them to their humanity. To the part of them that would have been concerned with or seeking to promote human welfare. Now the only way that they can receive fulfillment is by sponging off other people by habitually exploiting or relying on other people.  They have to live through the result of watching, listening to or reading about your activities or interests rather than doing it on their own. They have to experience life through you.  The soul is meant to ground the person's mind in reality. It is meant to ground the person's mind in the state of things as they actually exist as opposed to an idealistic or a notion idea of them. This is what gives the person a purpose. Something that motivates or encourages them to do good. A reason for their existence. Without a soul and without a purpose they have no kindness or compassion. They pushed their soul away. They pushed their higher self or true self away. They rejected it. They dismissed it as inadequate and acceptable or faulty because of the pain or trauma that they have experienced. They pushed their true self away so that they could give attention and consideration to multiple personalities where they are living through other people. This is where they are imitating other people. They are imitating whatever they think you want them to be. Whatever they think you might find desirable or attractive. Whatever they think you like or are interested in or they will use you as a model and they then simulate or copy you. They live through your experiences without having any real experiences of their own. They have to live through you. They have to steal your energy. They are in survival mode and they are incapable of producing this energy on their own. They have no soul so they have no energy. They're just an empty void.  They are not capable of being satisfied. They are not capable of experiencing contentment.  They have to feed off your pain, trouble or annoyance. They have to provoke negative emotions within you. Because they rejected their soul. And all they have left is an empty void and an insatiable yet unsatisfiable appetite or desire for energy. They have to create this fake world or alternate reality where they have more control. Where they can then create their own interpretations or distorted meanings. Their own process of defining something. It gives them the power to influence and direct people's behaviour on the course of events. They don't want to accept reality as it is. They don't want to live in truth or fact. They don't want to maintain a connection with their true self. Because they believe that their true self has failed them. They have dismissed their true self as being inadequate and acceptable or faulty. Because they have experienced things that they didn't want to go through. So they have rebelled against their true self. They have rise in opposition against their true self. Which is meant to have authority over them. They have rejected it. When you understand that they have lost their intrinsic nature or indispensable qualities. You should then realise why they function in this way. Why they are not real people. Why they do not feel any pity or sorrow for your misfortune. Why there are no shared feelings or opinions. Why you cannot connect with them. Because you are just talking to the exterior. The protective outer case of their multiple personalities. They are no longer connected with their true selves. They have disowned their true selves. All that is left is a soulless being or a machine. Something that lacks character and individuality. Something that lacks human feelings and qualities. They are not complete humans. They know what they are doing. But they cannot stop their sudden strong and unreflected urge or desire to act. Because they are no longer connected to their true selves. They are in survival mode. Doing whatever they can to gather the energy that they need to sustain themselves. To keep them going. Narcissists are not real people. They have no identity of their own. They have no characteristics or qualities of their own.  With their own interpretations or distorted meanings. Which are not according with truth or fact. They are opposed to or denying of the truth or facts. Their existence is not real. Because they are not connected to their true selves. And they are not operating in reality. They are doing everything they can to deny and escape from their true selves. And from reality. Thank you for watching. I hope this video resonated with you. Please like, comment, share and subscribe. Click the bell icon to receive notifications for my future videos. If you would like to donate my PayPal links in the video description. Coaching inquiries you can email me at narcissfivercoaching.com Thank you for watching and I'll talk to you soon.