Informing Community Access to Loss and Damage Funding

From Climate Refugees and Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Washington, DC

A case study to inform the Board of the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) based on consultations with communities displaced by climate change in Kenya.

The work to disperse funding under the FRLD, and indeed any efforts to implement meaningful and appropriate solutions for those affected by climate change, must be informed by impacted people. They are best positioned to identify their priorities, needs, gaps and the most impactful ways to deploy resources that facilitate inclusion, representation and compensation of all affected communities.

As such, this case study provides evidence and testimonies from communities Climate Refugees visited in Kenya that are already suffering extreme climate impacts, and who lack the support to withstand those growing climate impacts that put them at risk to grave violations of their human rights, repeated and uncompensated development setbacks, permanent displacement and forced migration. The impacts they are suffering are beyond what can be tackled with adaptation measures.

In other words: they are experiencing Loss and Damage.

Submission to the WIM ExCom on Non-Economic Losses

The Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage, the body under the UNFCCC responsible for implementation of approaches to address loss and damage from climate change impacts, is currently undertaking a revision of its technical paper on non-economic losses.

In recognition of the growing awareness around loss and damage as a result of climate change, Climate Refugees has prepared four case studies, which we hope will be helpful to the WIM ExCom as they update the technical paper for the first time since 2013. Climate Refugees’ submissions, available in a single PDF below, are based on our visits to and reporting on Kenya’s Rift Valley.

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Climate Justice and Loss & Damage: Submission to the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development

In response to a call for input from the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to development, Climate Refugees joined colleagues from the Loss and Damage Collaboration (L&DC) in a submission to inform the Special Rapporteur’s thematic report on climate justice and loss & damage.

Climate Refugees’ contributions to this submission are based on our field work and reporting from Kenya’s Rift Valley. We hope the submission - which can be read in its entirety below as well as on the L&DC site - will be helpful and informative to the Special Rapporteur’s important work in this area.

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Climate Change, Loss & Damage, and Human Rights: Submission to OHCHR

In response to a call for input from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Climate Refugees has provided a submission to help inform the Secretary-General’s analytical study on the impact of loss and damage from the adverse effects of climate change on the full enjoyment of human rights, which will be presented at the Human Rights Committee at its 57th session later this year.

Climate Refugees’ submission is based on field work and subsequent reporting from the Lake Chad Basin, Kenya’s Rift Valley, and Miami (South Florida), as well as recent advocacy efforts on climate change migration and displacement.

Read the full submission to OHCHR below.

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