How COP29 can address displacement

Displacement must be a priority in Loss and Damage funding decisions

Direct and indirect economic costs associated with displacement can add up to tens of billions of dollars every year, in the form of losses of assets, income or response to meet their basic needs in housing, health, education or security.  

Actors implementing activities to prevent and respond to displacement, and achieve durable solutions, including affected communities themselves, should have access to the different funding windows of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD). At COP28, the Decision to operationalise the Fund and other funding arrangements, recognises that the Fund will provide finance for addressing challenges including “displacement, relocation, migration [and] insufficient climate information and data”. This is a significant progress, however,  COP29 should clarify access modalities to the Fund. 

Parties should agree to include Loss and Damage as a sub-goal in the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). Doing so is instrumental to ensure that sufficient funding is available to address loss and damage, including displacement and its impacts, at the scale of the needs of affected countries. 

Loss and damage assessments should account for displacement, based on available data and methodologies to measure its scale, occurrence, duration, risks, differentiated impacts and costs. Overlooking displacement in these assessments leads to underestimating the total value of loss and damage. It is essential that discussions on the scale of the FRLD needed to support countries and populations affected by displacement and its immediate and long-term repercussions are informed by accurate assessments of the economic and non-economic costs of displacement. 

The Santiago Network and the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage should continue to refine their procedures to further incorporate displacement

The Secretariat of the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage (SNLD) should ensure that expertise and experience related to displacement risk modeling, displacement tracking, socio-economic impact assessments or needs assessment are made available through the Organisations, Bodies, Networks and Experts (OBNEs) selected to provide technical assistance. Technical assistance provided through the SNLD should support the development of comprehensive loss and damage assessments. It should also support countries in strengthening their capacities to monitor and address displacement in the context of both slow and rapid onset events and processes, and to mitigate its economic and non-economic consequences.  

The 2024 Review of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage should enhance the coherence and coordination among the three bodies – the FRLD, the SNLD and the Warsaw International Mechanism Executive Committee (ExCom) – that compose the Loss and Damage architecture within the UNFCCC. It is also an occasion to strengthen the role and capacities of the WIM ExCom’s expert groups, including its Task Force on Displacement (TFD). TFD’s composition could in particular be revised, to reflect the evolving and growing community of experts working on human mobility and climate change. TFD’s membership has been almost unchanged since its creation in 2016 and diversifying its membership could bring additional voices and perspectives, in particular from civil society and from IDPs, refugees and migrants themselves.  

All Parties should include displacement in their National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)  

Displacement is not only a humanitarian issue but is also a concern for development, climate, DRR or peace actors. Mainstreaming displacement into national planning processes and budgeting and across all sectors of society is essential to ensure it is addressed comprehensively and across all the phases of prevention, protection and assistance, and durable solutions.  

Including displacement in NDCs and NAPs can help ensure coordination and coherence across diverse national frameworks so that efforts to address displacement in the context of climate change and disasters are integrated and harmonised.  

Preparation of NDCs and NAPs must respond to the disproportionate impacts of climate change and disasters on displaced populations and be informed by already available knowledge and data, including disaggregated data per age, gender or disability. Decisions on how to do this should include the participation of displaced people not only to protect their human rights, promote their agency and ensure that no one is left behind in climate action, but also to ensure the decisions are effective and sustainable over time.