LOSS AND DAMAGE AND DISPLACEMENT: KEY MESSAGES FOR THE ROAD TO COP 28

This advocacy brief calls for the mainstreaming of population displacement, forced migration and other forms of involuntary human mobility into policy and practice addressing loss and damage related to climate change. The messages in this brief are directly relevant to ongoing Loss and Damage negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the lead-up to COP 28.

Published on September 15, 2023

Loss and Damage and Challenges of Human Mobility and Displacement Working Group | idrp, IDPs, Disaster, Climate, United Nations

Pakistan. Drowning in despair. 2022 © Jamil Akhtar CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0

Displacement must be central to addressing climate change-related loss and damage. Climate-related displacement undermines human rights, well-being and development, resulting in a broad range of adverse impacts on individuals, communities, societies and States, raising important questions and concerns regarding climate justice. Any comprehensive approach to addressing climate-related loss and damage must endeavour to avert, minimise and provide equitable and just solutions to the adverse impacts of displacement.

The messages in this advocacy brief by the Loss and Damage and Challenges of Human Mobility and Displacement Working Group are intended to inform and catalyse discussions and debates leading up to COP 28 and beyond, engaging States and regional bodies, governmental organisations, NGOs, community-based organisations, policy makers, researchers, legal experts and others in positions to avert, minimise and address displacement and mobility-related loss and damage in the context of climate change.

KEYWORDS: loss and damage; climate change; COP 28; displacement; climate justice

DOWNLOAD ADVOCACY BRIEF

This advocacy brief is co-published by the Loss and Damage Collaboration and Researching Internal Displacement. It can be found also on the Loss and Damage Collaboration webpage.

The Loss and Damage and the Challenges of Human Mobility and Displacement working group is a coalition of practitioners, researchers, lawyers and activists working on human mobility at local, national and global levels. Representing a broad cross-section of voices, perspectives and interests, participants in the working group share the common conviction that climate change-related displacement must be central to efforts to assess and address loss and damage impacts, including cascading and intergenerational impacts on individuals, communities, societies and ecosystems.

Image Credits

1. Cover image: Drowning in Despair, by Jamil Akhtar via the World Meteorological Organization (7289), licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Description: Residents of a village in District Sanghar in Sindh Province of Pakistan, gather to collect some emergency ration supplies after the devastating flood of 2022. This year has also had its share of floods, albeit slightly less than the previous year. Experts warn that this will probably become an annual occurrence. Pakistan has one of the smallest carbon footprints in the world while suffering from the worst effects of climate change and almost no disaster preparedness.

2. Loss and Damage Collaboration logo: Sundarbans web, by the European Space Agency, Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016), processed by ESA, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

Researching Internal Displacement publishes engaging and insightful short pieces of writing, artistic and research outputs, policy briefings and think pieces on internal displacement.

We welcome contributions from academics, practitioners, researchers, officials, artists, poets, writers, musicians, dancers, postgraduate students and people affected by internal displacement.

Contact the Editorial Team

How to Contribute

The Invisible Tide: Why Climate Policy Must Address the Unspoken Losses of Coastal Youth

By Ranjan K. Panda | May 28, 2026

This moving and insightful blog, from a long-time climate advocate and champion of youth in India, examines the lived experience of 'loss and damage' by young people from the coastal state of Odisha displaced by sea level rise. Describing the broad range of intangible losses experienced by displaced youth - ranging from loss of cultural heritage and identity to adverse impacts on psychosocial health and personal agency - the article calls for a more nuanced and compassionate understanding of 'non-economic loss and damage' (NELD), a concept used in climate change negotiations and other discourses but which doesn't adequately capture the depth and complexity of the losses and damages experienced by displaced young people. The author argues that these experiences should serve as a stark warning: If disaster management policies and climate adaptation planning do not urgently recognise and address the intangible losses of young people, we risk losing an entire generation to displacement, trauma and disenfranchisement.

Safeguarding Children’s Futures: Addressing children’s experiences of loss and damage in the context of climate-related (im)mobilities

By Lucy Szaboova, Laura Healy and Cristina Colon | May 21, 2026

Building on work undertaken at UNICEF, the article examines how children in situations of climate-related displacement, planned relocation, migration and immobility experience interconnected economic and non-economic harms. Losses and damages experienced through such (im)mobilities often cascade over time, adversely impacting children's physical and psychosocial wellbeing and access to child-critical systems and services, affecting children’s developmental paths throughout life. Failing to respond adequately risks entrenching cycles of poverty, vulnerability, inequality and loss of human capital across generations. The authors discuss why advancing child-responsive data systems, policy frameworks and participation mechanisms is crucial for decisions related to movement, relocation and adaptation interventions, where children’s views are often overlooked. Strengthening children’s inclusion is vital for better interventions and governance and for advancing intergenerational justice.

A Changing World: Time and the Impact of Aid Reduction on IDP Children

By Jennefer Lyn L. Bagaporo and Chona R. Echavez | May 12, 2026

Geopolitical scenarios and possible aid shifts can cut national budgets in countries with internally displaced persons, weakening services they rely on and increasing household stress—leaving children especially vulnerable and undermining stability and development. The Philippines receives official development aid grants mainly for health and social protection from the United Nations and the United States. Shifting global priorities are likely to reduce future funding for these sectors. To systematically trace the effects of aid reduction on IDP children, this paper - the 13th volume in our series on ‘Internal Displacement in a Changing World Order’ - presents time as an analytical factor. Through a longitudinal cohort study, time-based analysis also presents opportunities to identify sectors that require focus to sustain support for IDP children and policies that necessitate robust, consistent implementation.