Concept Note: Symposium on Loss and Damage - Advancing Non-Economic Losses: Data, Policy, and Capacity for Action

Climate change is driving losses and damages globally, much of which are non-economic in nature. These include impacts on human health, cultural heritage, biodiversity, ecosystems, livelihoods, and community identity. In many contexts, climate impacts manifest through displacement, involuntary immobility, and the progressive erosion of place-based identities, social cohesion and cultural continuity. Despite their profound implications for resilience, human rights, and sustainable development, such non-economic losses (NELs) remain underexplored in national planning and underrepresented in global policy processes. These dynamics represent NELs that sit at the intersection of humanitarian need, development reversals, and peace and stability risks, yet remain weakly captured in loss and damage assessments and policy responses.