West Africa: Cop 31 - West Africa's Climate Plans Put a Price On Ruined Roads and Crops - How to Add Invisible Losses
Government officials can estimate the cost of rebuilding roads destroyed by floods or calculate income lost to drought. However, measuring invisible losses from climate disasters remains difficult. These include the loss of sacred places and the emotional strain on displaced people. Other unquantifiable impacts include the breakdown of community bonds and the loss of a child's sense of safety.
[The Conversation Africa] When a flood destroys a road, government officials can estimate the cost of rebuilding it. When drought ruins a harvest, lost income can be calculated. But how should a country record or measure the loss of a sacred place? Or the emotional strain that people experience when they are displaced from their homes by a climate-related disaster, the breakdown of community bonds, or a child's lost sense of safety?