LOSS AND DAMAGE AND DISPLACEMENT: KEY MESSAGES FOR THE ROAD TO COP 28 (Arabic, French, Italian and Spanish Editions)

This advocacy brief, originally co-published on September 15, 2023 by the Loss and Damage Coalition and Researching Internal Displacement, is now available in Arabic, French, Italian and Spanish translations, which may be downloaded via the links below. The English edition has been accepted as a formal submission to the UNFCCC Loss and Damage Transitional Committee.

Published on October 16, 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

The messages, developed by a broad coalition of practitioners, researchers, lawyers and activists working on human mobility at local, national and global levels, are directly relevant to ongoing Loss and Damage negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The English edition has been accepted as a formal submission to the UNFCCC Loss and Damage Transitional Committee.

Displacement is one of the most detrimental outcomes of loss and damage, adversely impacting well-being and the enjoyment of fundamental human rights and potentially reversing development gains for communities and entire nations. 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.

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

DOWNLOAD ARABIC EDITION

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DOWNLOAD ITALIAN EDITION

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DOWNLOAD ENGLISH EDITION

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

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