Climate-related displacement causes non-economic losses – of land, heritage and identity – that cannot be adequately addressed through financial compensation alone. Policy responses must centre affected people’s values and choices, prioritising dignity, cultural continuity, habitability and social cohesion.

The novel and loosely defined concept of non-economic loss and damage is receiving growing attention in discussions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The interplay and scales of climate change-related hazards and processes result in a broad range of losses and damages, many of which are not easily quantifiable in financial terms.

Non-economic losses (NELs) may be losses that affect individuals (for example, loss of life, health or mobility), society (for example, loss of territory, cultural heritage, Indigenous or local knowledge, languages or societal or cultural identity) or the environment (for example, loss of biodiversity or ecosystem services). These intangible losses are additional to the loss of property, assets, infrastructure, or agricultural production and revenue caused by the adverse impacts of climate change. The latter, being more tangible, can be more easily assigned a monetary value, which facilitates concrete discussions with historical emitters around compensation.

Climate change-related displacement is itself recognised as a form of NEL, affecting diverse communities worldwide. A key UNFCC paper highlights how climate displacement disrupts social networks, identity and belonging. Outcomes linked to displacement also have cascading effects on other NELs, undermining habitability and driving further forced out-migration. Habitability can be defined as a place’s capacity to support human life: protection from hazards, access to food and water, adequate space, opportunities that sustain health and wellbeing, and the collective strength of communities to thrive. As habitability declines, the ways people choose to move are also likely to change – often to longer distance location, particularly where livelihoods are affected at the site of origin.^[1]

Habitability loss leads to key intangible climate-related losses because habitability is a central element in the relationship between people and the environment. Gradually evolving climate hazards interact with human mobility in such a way that one loss triggers further harm – eroding social cohesion, interrupting knowledge transmission and reshaping ways of being, which all compound habitability loss and further exacerbate mobility drivers. For example, disaster displacement during harvest seasons disrupts agricultural livelihoods in origin areas, contributing to loss of traditional knowledge regarding farming that later undermines agricultural productivity in the context of increasingly frequent drought cycles, corroding cultural heritage that is often overlooked but is valuable. These feedback cycles include interlinked losses between territory and habitability; livelihoods, wellbeing, and identity; cultural heritage, processes of enculturation, and social cohesion; and biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Non-economic losses and climate justice

The links between NELs and climate displacement should play a central role in debates on climate justice, equity and intersectionality. Historically emitting countries that have benefited economically for generations from fossil fuel-based economic growth bear some responsibility to rebalance the impacts borne by countries that were on slower growth trajectories.

While no agreed definition for NELs exists, UNFCCC processes – through the work of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage – have been initiated to avert, minimise and address them. In addition to identifying and describing representative cases of NELs related to human mobility. This article proposes a value-based and intersectional approach—rooted in social equity, justice, and human rights—to guide planning and the development of displacement scenarios. This approach focuses on the choices people make in response to climate impacts and uses these insights to inform policy pathways that would meaningfully address non-economic losses.

Ultimately, ensuring that the voices and choices of individuals and communities are reflected in future climate and vulnerability assessments will provide critical data to guide decision-making, climate policies and the allocation of climate funding. Importantly, it also helps people displaced in the context of climate change to actively contribute to, and shape, effective solutions for their circumstances.

Typologies of intangible climate losses

An existing typology of climate-related non-economic losses and damages sets out 20 different values across the three dimensions of cultural heritage, biodiversity, and territory.[2] The top ten expressed and ranked by research participants in the Pacific were: spirituality; family; education and skills; connection to, and custodianship of, land and sea; wellbeing; sense of place and ‘home’; traditional governance system and decision-making; subsistence society and/or traditional livelihood; equality; and looking after one another. These values are all subjective and place-dependent and their links with human mobility – migration, displacement, planned relocations or resettlements of communities, and degrees of immobility – tend to be highly context specific, socially connected, dynamic, and multidirectional. Human mobility influences NELs and they, in turn, influence human mobility drivers.

Drawing on this typology, we conducted 79 key informant interviews to identify, describe and assess representative cases of NELs and what actions had been taken to address them.[3] This aims to inform research and policy responses that strengthen systems for preserving what people consider most important to them, which responses should be prioritised and where resources should be allocated.

Interviews were conducted in spring and summer 2024, with experts from eight regions of the world, representing ministries, non-governmental organisations and academia, selected specifically for their prior knowledge of NELs and climate mobility concepts. Interviewees were identified by United Nations partners – the International Organization for Migration (IOM), UNHCR, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and other partners from government and academia during development of a technical guide on NELs in the context of human mobility.

The centrality of land- and place-based values

In contexts of customary land tenure, land is inseparable from culture and society. Land systems underpin natural resource management, Indigenous early warning mechanisms, immediate coping strategies and long-term adaptation. Land and place also strongly influence mobility decisions and outcomes: people on the move from communities with deep attachments to land often face disarticulation and social alienation.[4]

More than half of our key informants (39) identified land loss directly, or referenced it when describing intangible or non-economic losses. These accounts fell into four categories:

land alienation, the situation of being forced to leave or losing access or rights to ancestral land;
land relinquishment, meaning the surrender or abandonment of land, often under duress;
land degradation, referring to declining land quality and resource depletion, commonly driving out-migration or slow-onset displacement in agrarian societies; and
land fragmentation, that also exacerbates the three categories above, and describing the division of land into smaller parcels that undermine its integrity and weaken kinship and social ties.

In low-lying areas, sea-level rise threatens to cause land loss and fragment contiguous land, making it harder for neighbouring communities to sustain historical relationships. Land alienation associated with displacement and relocations is prominently related to NELs. For example, one interviewee noted:

“It leads to mental health issues… the loss of the lands and the loss of their ancestral grandparents’ graves. Especially in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan), we’ve been severely affected as well by floods. It is like a whole region; a whole graveyard being flooded away.”

Another interviewee offered:

“In the Pacific Islands, there are proofs that when communities are being displaced and relocated, besides the secondary displacements from the temporary relocations, many of the elders within the communities have mentioned that the customs and ways of living and social hierarchies – historical and ancestral hierarchies – they are starting to be lost because the younger generations start to los[e] that connection to their vanua, their fenua, and also their respect and their connection with the ancestral ways of working,”

Vanua/fenua and similar words in other Austronesian languages are sometimes translated as ‘land’, but can be better understood as an integrated worldview where land, identity and community form a unified whole. As an illustration: the placenta is often buried below or next to a tree to signify connection with ancestral land or fonua (Tongan), vanua (Fijian), whenua (Māori) and fanua (Samoa).[5]

Social fragmentation after Tropical Cyclone Yasa

The experiences of survivors of Tropical Cyclone Yasa in Fiji illustrate the complex dimensions of social fragmentation linked to land loss experienced in the wake of natural disasters. Following the cyclone, Nabavatu village encountered significant land instability that compromised the structural integrity of homes. A substantial number of households were displaced, leading to families living in a makeshift ‘tent village’ for an extended period while awaiting permanent relocation.

Social fragmentation resulted, as displaced communities struggled to maintain established social networks and overcome competition over limited resources.[6] This fragmentation severely threatens survivors’ emotional well-being. Long-term psychological impacts – including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – are widely documented, underscoring the necessity for comprehensive support mechanisms. Social dislocation related to displacement can result in increased feelings of isolation and loss of identity, which can hinder not only individual recovery but also the collective restoration of community ties.[7] The cyclone also caused significant loss and damage to agricultural and community structures, exacerbating vulnerabilities and undermining economic recovery.

At the same time, a community’s psychological resilience is significantly bolstered by robust social networks, which tend to weaken in the face of displacement like that caused by Cyclone Yasa. This case highlights the importance of centring and supporting community choice that respects traditional land ownership systems and social connections as it is crucial in facilitating mobility and sustainable relocations within and between islands – and central to minimising and addressing NELs associated with these movements.[8]

From victims to agents

Displaced individuals should not be viewed solely as victims of circumstance but as agents capable of making meaningful choices about their futures. This includes not only the choice to move or to stay with ‘dignity’, but also the right to define what dignity means from their own perspectives.[9]

Centring the lived experiences of affected people, as well as the locally specific values that guide them, is key. Doing so fosters deeper understandings of the complex relationships between people, their environments and cultural identities, and ensures that responses are grounded in context-specific needs. A values-based approach to non-economic losses (NELs) places people’s choices and lived experiences at the center of climate policy. By grounding responses in social equity, justice, and human rights, it enables locally-owned interventions and broadens the scope of vulnerability assessments to include cultural and emotional dimensions. This approach also supports more inclusive data collection and responsive policy design, helping to address NELs in ways that go beyond financial compensation. Practical guidance on NELs must frame the issue as inherently local, with assessment tools designed to capture both economic and non-economic factors, including social cohesion, cultural identity, mental health and dignity. A local values-based approach, rather than a predefined framework, places people and their lived experiences at the centre and guarantees that people’s lived experiences are acknowledged, valued, and respected.[10]

Interviewees emphasised that any assessment or programme for NELs must be inclusive and built on deep consultation with diverse stakeholders, particularly Indigenous peoples, youth and people living with disabilities. Insights from communities can translate into actionable policy. For instance, informants proposed solutions to land-based NELs and drivers of forced mobility, such as acquiring new land, expanding existing ownership or purchasing additional property. A prominent example is the government of Kiribati’s 2014 purchase of 22 km² of land on Vanua Levu, Fiji, to provide options for potential population relocation.

Policies based on a deeper understanding of individuals and communities can be further strengthened to address land-based declines in habitability that are associated with displacement or forced relocations and related NELs. Policies should prioritise social cohesion and cultural preservation, as well as practical support systems for displaced, migrant or relocated populations and those who choose, or are forced, to stay in place. Ultimately, this enables them to make informed choices about how to adapt to the future.

Julia M Blocher
Project Lead and Scientist, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)
blocher@pik-potsdam.de
linkedin.com/in/julia-blocher-ph-d-46258718/

Dalila Gharbaoui
Research Fellow, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
dalila.gharbaoui@canterbury.ac.nz
linkedin.com/in/dalila-gharbaoui-31365614/

[1] Blocher J (2025) How Habitability Shapes Climate-Related Migration and Displacement

[2] McNamara, K.E., Clissold, R., Westoby, R., Yee, M., Mariri, T., Wichman, V., Obed, V.L., Meto, P., Raynes, E., & Nand, M.M. (2024). ‘Values must be at the heart of responding to loss and damage’. Frontiers in Climate, Volume 6.

[3] The research took the form of semi-structured interviews with key informants supplemented by desk review and previous research with mobile and relocated community members.

[4] Gharbaoui D and Blocher J (2016) ‘The reason land matters: relocation as adaptation to climate change in Fiji Islands, Migration, Risk Management and Climate Change: Evidence and Policy Responses’, Global Migration Issues, Vol 6: 149-73

[5] Gharbaoui D, Lataai Nuisulu A, Senituli L, Baird N and Ratuva S (2024) To move or not to move: Climate mobilities in the Pacific

[6] Yee, M., McNamara, K. E., & McMichael, C. (2025, March 27). “Where my heart belongs”: Disaster-induced displacement in Nabavatu village, Fiji. Researching Internal Displacement.

[7] Woods C, West C, Buettner P and Usher K (2014) ‘“Out of our control”: living through cyclone yasi’, International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being, Vol 9 (1): 19821

[8] See endnotes 3 and 4

[9] Gharbaoui D (2023) ‘Staying with dignity: Climate-related immobility in the Pacific’ in Hamdy A Hassan (ed) From Rio to Dubai: Climate Challenges and Global Cooperations, Future for Advanced Research and Studies

[10] van Schie D, et al (2023) ‘Valuing a values-based approach for assessing loss and damage’, Climate and Development, Vol 16 (8): 722-29

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