The ENHANCE project has pointed to the need for a greater research focus on options to address the residual impacts associated with both extreme and slow onset hazards. The topic has gained increasing visibility within recent climate change talks, eventually resulting in the creation at COP 19 of a specific ‘Loss and Dam- age Mechanism’ to deal with unavoidable climate-related effects. In 2014, the UNFCCC set up an Executive Committee and devised a work programme to inform the deliberations. The mechanism was eventually endorsed as a stand-alone article of the Paris agreement: Parties are called to work ‘on a cooperative and facilitative basis’ to ‘enhance understanding, action and support’ in areas including early warning systems, comprehensive risk assessment and management, risk insurance facilities, climate risk pooling, and non-economic losses. Yet, the mechanism features a mere explorative mandate and options for making it operational are currently subject to a vibrant debate.