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MODERATOR

Douwe van Schie

Erica Bower, Climate Displacement Researcher, Human Rights Watch

Steven Miron, Visiting Fellow, Refugee Law Initiative, University of London School of Advanced Study

Lucy Szaboova, Senior Scientist, University of Vienna; Associate Research Fellow, University of Exeter

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PANELISTS

Wednesday, October 29, 2025

8:00am-9:30am EST

Session 17.2

What can we gain from a holistic view of (im)mobilities in the context of loss and damage?

Abstract

This panel will look at the relationship between human (im)mobilities and loss and damage (L&D). Each panelist will address a common set of questions in relation to a specific mobility type: displacement, migration and planned relocation, which are codified in the UNFCCC at COP 26 (The Cancun Agreements, 2010, para 14f) and the recently-operationalized Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (Funding Agreements, 2023). The panelists will also discuss immobility, voluntary and involuntary. The panel aims to advance a holistic understanding of mobility and immobility in the context of L&D to help inform how (im)mobility is understood, approached and prioritized within the UNFCCC’s Loss and Damage mechanism and beyond.


(Im)mobilities have been described as relational, with the mobilities and immobilities of individuals and groups within a community in dynamic relationship with those of others. For example, in a community experiencing environmental degradation affecting local livelihoods, seasonal labor migration undertaken by some within a household might enable other household members to continue living in situ (Zickgraf, 2022; Furong et al., 2022). (Im)mobilities may arise in the context of L&D (e.g. the destruction of homes leading to displacement, or the loss of financial and other assets leading to involuntary immobility for people who might wish to settle elsewhere). (Im)mobilities may also shape how L&D plays out over time (e.g. whether affected people experience further L&D or can find more adaptive contexts in which to live). (Im)mobilities, when consent-based and rights-affirming, also have the potential to help avert or minimize L&D associated with more erosive forced (im)mobilities – for example, successful consent-based planned relocation or safe and dignified migration may reduce the likelihood of L&D associated with displacement.


While the need to engage with the dynamic relationships among different forms of (im)mobility and L&D is increasingly recognized, the links remain poorly understood and articulated. Too often, mobility is still considered primarily a form of non-economic L&D  (UNFCCC 2013). This view understates the full impact of (im)mobility in the context of climate change and overlooks the critical differences in experiences of L&D across different types of human mobility. Progress has been made toward more nuanced accounts of (im)mobility and its L&D links, mainly in the context of displacement and planned relocation (e.g. RID and L&DC 2023; UNFCCC 2024), in particular, how L&D may result in movement. More work is needed on elaborating how human mobility and immobility may result in additional – yet often avoidable – L&D (Szaboova et al. 2025; RID and L&DC 2024).


The panel will address these gaps and explore what insights might be gained by looking into ‘averting, minimizing and addressing L&D’ holistically across the relevant forms of (im)mobility in the context of climate change. We will:

  • Explore the links between L&D and human (im)mobility:

  • How each type of (im)mobility may occur in the context of L&D

  • How L&D may arise at the intersection of different types of mobility and immobility (e.g. when some family members move while others remain in place)

  • How, in certain contexts, mobilities might, themselves, be forms of L&D, especially when involuntary (e.g. separation from community and culture, ancestral lands, way of life)

  • How and why each mobility type might lead to further L&D in certain contexts and under certain conditions (e.g., distress migration, top-down planned relocation or protracted displacement)

  • Elaborate on the positive role that consent-based and rights-affirming (im)mobility can play in averting, minimizing and addressing L&D:

  • Under what conditions mobility might be adaptive and employed as strategies to avert L&D, lessen vulnerability and strengthen resilience (e.g. translocal lives and labor migration, community-led relocation, etc.)

  • What limitations might exist and why (e.g. limits to migration as adaptation; challenges of achieving durable solutions; challenges in achieving consent-based and well-supported planned relocation)

  • Consider implications for policy, practice and justice

  • Interventions and support that might help avert, minimize and address L&D

  • The critical (multifaceted) actions and programming that can ensure (im)mobility is rights-affirming and adaptive

  • What participatory, locally led and consent-based programming should look like

  • Promising practical approaches to addressing (im)mobility challenges in the context of L&D that should be shared across mobility types (e.g., community-led approaches, involvement of local government, etc.)

  • How these insights can inform the evolving policy and finance landscape (e.g. governance of human mobility, loss and damage funding, climate action planning)

  • The implications for mobility justice and climate justice

Bios

Erica Bower

Dr. Erica Bower is currently the Climate Displacement Researcher at Human Rights Watch, building on a decade studying climate mobility and advocating for policies that better protect people’s rights on the move. She has worked alongside communities planning relocations -- including in Panama, Solomon Islands, Senegal -- and has advised governments -- including Fiji and the United States -- on community-centered and culturally-sensitive planned relocation approaches. Her academic research on these themes is published in journals such as Nature Climate Change and Global Environmental Change, and she is the lead author of a global mapping of over 400 disaster-related planned relocation cases. She is a member of the Platform on Disaster Displacement Advisory Committee and an Affiliate of the Kaldor Centre. Previously, she worked with diverse organizations, including UNHCR, IDMC and the Nansen Initiative. She holds a PhD in planned relocation governance from Stanford, a MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from Oxford, and a BA in Human Rights and Sustainable Development from Columbia.


Recent publications include:

Steven Miron

Steven Miron is a researcher and publisher, working on human displacement, environmental mobility and climate change adaptation. His current research focuses on climate-related loss and damage, displacement and durable solutions. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Refugee Law Initiative, School of Advanced Study University of London. He also Joint Editor-in-Chief of Researching Internal Displacement. In 2024, Steve was a Visiting Researcher at the International Centre for Climate Adaptation and Development (ICCCAD) in Dhaka. Formerly a publishing executive at John Wiley & Sons for over twenty years, he headed up Wiley’s operations in Asia and, later, Wiley’s Global Research publishing business.


Recent publications include:

Lucy Szaboova

Dr Lucy Szaboova is an academic researcher and consultant specialising on loss and damage and human mobility in the context of climate change. She is an Associate Research Fellow at the University of Exeter and a Senior Scientist at the University of Vienna. She holds an MSc in Environment and International Development from the University of East Anglia, and a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Exeter.


Lucy is a passionate advocate of children’s and migrant’s rights. She has researched the lived experiences of urban migrants in Bangladesh, Ghana and India, and explored opportunities for creating safe, sustainable and migrant-friendly cities through urban planning and policy. She is in receipt of a Marie Sklodowska-Currie Fellowship to undertake research on the links between loss and damage and human mobility in the context of climate change (starting in spring 2026).


As a consultant working with UNICEF, she co-authored the Guiding Principles for Children on the Move in the Context of Climate Change, the first dedicated and comprehensive guidance on protecting the rights and wellbeing of children affected by climate-related mobility and immobility. She also played a key role in making the case for child-responsive loss and damage finance. Working with FAO, she has been supporting evidence-based programming and policy and has led the development of various knowledge products. For example, she oversaw the development of a recently published FAO/UNU-EHS Guiding framework and Toolkit on integrating human mobility through a rural livelihood lens into national adaptation and mitigation planning.


Recent publications include:

  • Szaboova, L., Link, A.C., van der Geest, K., Demeranville, J., Prati, G. (2025). Acting on Loss and Damage: Linking Rural Livelihoods and Climate Mobility in Adaptation and Mitigation Planning, Researching Internal Displacement.

  • Szaboova, L., Adger, W.N., Safra de Campos, R., Siddiqui, T., Bhuiyan, M.R.A., Billah, T. (2024), Promoting sustainable cities through creating social empathy between new urban populations and planners, npj Urban Sustainability.

  • Szaboova, L., Adger, N., Safra de Campos, R., Conway, D., Maharjan, A., Sakdapolrak, P., Sterly, H., Codjoe, S.N.A., Abu, M. (2023). Evaluating migration as successful adaptation to climate change: trade-offs in well-being, equity and sustainability, One Earth 6(6): 620-631.

  • Szaboova, L., Colón, C., Wakefield, J., Strømsø, I, Cooke, J., Huq, S., Grace, I. (2023). Climate Justice: Loss and Damage Finance for Children, UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, Florence.

  • Szaboova, L., Safra de Campos, R., Adger, N.,Abu, M., Codjoe, S.N.A., Franco Gavonel, M., Das, S., Siddiqui, T., Rocky, M.H., Hazra, S. (2021). Urban sustainability and the subjective wellbeing of migrants: the role of risks, place attachment and aspirations, Population, Space and Place.

Douwe van Schie

Douwe van Schie is a PhD candidate at the University of Bonn and researcher in the 'Environment and Migration: Interactions and Choices’ team at the United Nations Institute for Environment and Human Security. His research is a multi-scalar analysis of social inequalities and loss and damage, starting in Suriname and ending at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He explains this by using concepts such as capabilities, intersectionality, and marronage. Douwe’s previous research focussed on so-called non-economic losses and damages and the framing of intangible losses related to climate change, with Bangladesh as a case study.


  • van Schie, D., Mirza, A.B., Ranon, R.J.K., Malek, M.M., Naushin, N. et al. (2025). Local values, local losses: assessing and addressing loss and damage from climate change in Northcentral Bangladesh. Climate and Development, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2025.2481111

  • van Schie, D., Jackson, G., Serdecnzy, O., and van der Geest, G. (2024). Economic and non-economic loss and damage: a harmful dichotomy?. Global Sustainability, 7. https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2024.40

  • van Schie, D., Jackson, G., Ranon, R.J.K., Mirza, A.B., Hossain, M.F. et al. (2024). Addressing non-economic loss and damage: learning from autonomous responses in Bangladesh. Climatic Change, 177, 124. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-024-03782-7

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