Non-economic Loss Research Articles

Addressing non-economic loss and damage: learning from autonomous responses in Bangladesh

People in the Majority World disproportionately experience Loss and Damage (L&D) related to climate change. Policymakers and researchers are exploring ways to address L&D. However, significant knowledge gaps remain, including how to address what has been termed Non-Economic Loss and Damage (NELD). We contribute to filling this knowledge gap by analysing the NELD people are experiencing and by exploring autonomous responses to these impacts. This study took place in two regions of Bangladesh: the southwestern Shyamnagar Upazila and the northcentral Durgapur Upazila. We find that people autonomously formulate responses to various NELD from different climate-related hazards (e.g., droughts, floods, and heatwaves). In doing so, people rely on various factors, such as financial assets and social relationships, to respond to NELD. However, because marginalised groups and individuals have little capacity to respond, they are forced to adopt certain responses that further erode their well-being. Moving forward, interventions responding to NELD can identify, build on, support and complement some of these existing responses. We argue that strengthening the capacity of affected people will better enable people to formulate non-erosive responses to NELD.

Indigenous Peoples and local communities report ongoing and widespread climate change impacts on local social-ecological systems

The effects of climate change depend on specific local circumstances, posing a challenge for worldwide research to comprehensively encompass the diverse impacts on various local social-ecological systems. Here we use a place-specific but cross-culturally comparable protocol to document climate change indicators and impacts as locally experienced and analyze their distribution. We collected first-hand data in 48 sites inhabited by Indigenous Peoples and local communities and covering all climate zones and nature-dependent livelihoods. We documented 1,661 site-agreed reports of change corresponding to 369 indicators. Reports of change vary according to climate zone and livelihood activity. We provide compelling evidence that climate change impacts on Indigenous Peoples and local communities are ongoing, tangible, widespread, and affect multiple elements of their social-ecological systems. Beyond potentially informing contextualized adaptation plans, our results show that local reports could help identify economic and non-economic loss and damage related to climate change impacts suffered by Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Economic and non-economic loss and damage: a harmful dichotomy?

Abstract Non-technical summary Loss and damage is treated as comprising separate ‘economic’ and ‘non-economic’ dimensions in research and policy. While this has contributed to greater awareness and visibility of non-economic values, our empirical insights show that the two are inextricably linked and that research aimed at informing policy must be better attuned to the multifaceted and cascading nature of loss and damage. Technical summary In research and policy, climate-related loss and damage is commonly categorized as either ‘economic’ or ‘non-economic’. One clear benefit of this dichotomy is that it has raised people's awareness of the often under-discussed intangible loss and damage. However, empirical research shows that these two categories are inextricably linked. Indeed, ‘economic’ and ‘non-economic’ loss and damage often overlap, with items that are valued in monetary terms also having non-monetary significance. For example, the loss of a home due to flooding is not only a financial loss but can also have a profound impact on identity and well-being. Moreover, ‘economic’ loss and damage can cascade into ‘non-economic’ loss and damage, and vice versa. For example, when a household incurs economic losses due to drought, this may prevent their children from attending school, which has long-term financial consequences. We argue that rather than dichotomizing loss and damage, recognizing that it is multidimensional, interwoven, and evolving over time will open up new avenues for research that better reflect reality and can therefore better inform policies to address loss and damage. Social media This comment shows how economic and non-economic loss and damage are linked, which has important policy implications.

Turning climate justice into practice? Channeling loss and damage funding through national social protection systems in climate‐vulnerable countries

AbstractDespite the last‐minute breakthrough agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference COP27 to provide funding for climate‐related loss and damage for vulnerable countries, distribution mechanisms and funding sources remain up for debate. With rapid‐onset climate impacts intensifying and slow‐onset impacts further manifesting, loss and damage from climate change is already occurring. Thus, quick, effective, and transparent distribution of upcoming funds is necessary. Currently, only a tiny fraction of existing sources of climate finance reaches affected communities, commonly marked by high levels of poverty and low levels of adaptive capacity. Similarly, donor‐based global humanitarian aid and development systems are buckling under the weight of increasing demand. As increasing climate impacts threaten to reverse development gains of the last decades, climate‐sensitive social protection has received increasing attention for its potential to address climate impacts and to strengthen the adaptive capacity and resilience of climate‐vulnerable populations. This review article explores the prospects of channeling Loss and Damage funding through existing national social protection systems and highlights how this approach can efficiently contribute to safeguarding development gains, including previously overlooked aspects such as noneconomic loss and damage (NELD), while also dismantling soft adaptation barriers and thus fostering climate resilience in the long term. Although we identify barriers, including gaps in coverage of social protection systems both between and within countries, we argue that channeling some L&D funding through social protection systems aligns with core human rights and climate justice agendas, as well as the principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities.This article is categorized under: Integrated Assessment of Climate Change > Assessing Climate Change in the Context of Other Issues Policy and Governance > International Policy Framework Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Values‐Based Approach to Vulnerability and Adaptation

Stories of loss and healing: connecting non-economic loss and damage, gender-based violence and wellbeing erosion in the Asia–Pacific region

It is well-known that women, children, and other intersectional and marginalised social groups are disproportionately impacted by ‘non-economic wellbeing loss’ in the context of climatic changes. However, few empirical studies investigate its interrelation with violence against women and children (VAWC). We urgently need to widen our perceptions of what falls under the umbrella term ‘Non-Economic Loss (and Damage)’, NEL(D)s, for societies to appropriately be able to avert, minimise, and address losses and damages among vulnerable people. Through stories of loss and healing, we step into the realities of women and children who illustrate how they experience non-economic wellbeing loss within a climate-violence nexus in Bangladesh, Fiji, and Vanuatu. A storytelling and systems approach guided the analysis of personal narratives gathered through a secondary data review and empirical field work. The research findings identified different pathways through which women’s and children’s mental health was compromised in the context of structural violence and climatic risks. In Bangladesh, the narratives described wellbeing erosion in the context of gendered (im)mobility; in Fiji, the findings captured women’s and children’s experiences of sexual violence, domestic abuse, exploitation, and trafficking in the context of natural hazards, while in Vanuatu, hardship, gendered dependence, and healing were narrated by women in their stories surrounding disaster recovery. This article comprehensively lays out the longer-term societal wellbeing consequences of climatic changes and gender-based violence. It also identifies research gaps in need of further attention and proposes policy recommendations as well as methodological and disaster health service solutions to address wellbeing loss in a climate changed future.

Climate change and loss and damage in Bangladesh*

Climate change increasingly affects social, economic and ecological systems, particularly in the most vulnerable regions of the world. The most frequently promoted strategies for handling impacts are mitigation and adaptation. Despite employing these two approaches, ‘loss and damage’ (L&D) may still occur. Thus, a third strategic approach may be needed to help vulnerable communities deal with damage associated with climate impacts, which can take many forms including economic and non-economic loss. How to assess and manage L&D remains subject to contentious debate within climate change negotiations. There is still no clear and commonly accepted understanding of L&D consolidated in law or policy at the international level. In this article, it is confirmed that conflicting or unclear framing of L&D is one of the main explanations for the slow progress in accepting L&D as an important third approach – in addition to mitigation and adaptation – needed to measure and manage global impacts of climate change. This article analyses how L&D is currently framed in policy and institutional terms and identifies the main challenges to addressing it at the national and international levels. Better to understand the challenges of incorporating L&D into climate change strategies, the case of Bangladesh is examined.

Accounting for non-economic loss: climate displacement and the meaningful omission of the intangible

ABSTRACT This article considers the relationship between cultural and climate policy. Specifically, it examines recent challenges in scholarly and policy efforts to conceptualize intangible heritage as an instance of non-economic loss resulting from climate-induced displacement. Illustrating the problem with cases from Latin America and the Caribbean, it surveys how international climate policy has come to adopt a loss and damage framework to address the costs of displacement. It goes on to focus upon cultural heritage as a frequently cited example of non-economic loss, first reviewing the evolution of heritage policy and then identifying a persistent inability to distinguish so-called intangible from tangible heritage. The article shows how a frequent tendency to treat intangible heritage as contingent upon and circumscribed by its tangible counterpart undermines efforts to come to terms with non-economic loss. Finally, it demonstrates how this conceptual fallacy is being carried over to scholarship and policy addressing climate-induced non-economic loss and highlights a need to better theorize the intangible dimensions of such loss.

Climate-Induced Non-Economic Loss and Damage: Understanding Policy Responses, Challenges, and Future Directions in Pacific Small Island Developing States

Despite mitigation and adaptation efforts, the residual risks of climate change will continue to impact the most vulnerable communities globally. Highly exposed regions, such as the Pacific Islands, will continue to experience profound negative loss and damage as a result of climate change, which will challenge current ways of life. Knowledge on the extent to which regional and national climate change polices can identify and respond to non-economic loss and damage (NELD) is limited. From the perspectives of stakeholders in the Pacific Islands region, this research aims to gain insights into how regional and national policies are responding to NELD, as the well as the barriers, shortcomings, and requirements for future responses. Utilising a mixed qualitative–quantitative approach, this research explores the perspectives of expert informants, including those from the government, donors and development partners, civil society, intergovernmental organisations, and other relevant bodies, such as universities. The key findings of this study indicate that current policy responses include a regional policy that integrates disaster and climate change losses, national efforts to preserve traditional and local knowledge, national adaptation and resilience planning, community-based projects, and relocation and resettlement. Additionally, NELD is a relatively new concept for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers, and it is difficult to conceptualise the diversity of issues related to NELD in the region. Owing to this poor understanding, a key gap relates to the dominance of the economic lens when characterising climate-induced impacts in the region. As such, there is a limited holistic consideration of climate change impacts, and thus a limited appreciation of the interrelated factors of NELD within policy responses that then cascade towards communities. Finally, the paper outlines key policy insights as follows: policies on integration, adaptation, resilience planning, relocation and resettlement have advanced; the economic lens dominates when characterising climate-induced impacts on the region; there is a limited appreciation of the interrelated factors of NELD; and there exists a need to account for residual and intangible losses to land, culture, traditional knowledge, biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human agency. The insights gained from this research can provide a practical basis for guiding local to regional action and help support and design comprehensive risk management solutions in order to address NELD associated with climate change.

Understanding non-economic loss and damage due to climate change in Ghana

ABSTRACT The concept of non-economic loss and damage (NELD) of climate change has emerged strongly in the international policy arena in the past few years. Nonetheless, while research on climate-induced loss has focused on the economic dimension, the non-economic aspects have often been side-lined in academic research and policy debate. This paper draws on in-depth interviews and a focus group with farmers to develop a comprehensive understanding of climate-induced non-economic loss and damage in southern Ghana. A key finding of the research is that climate change has a non-economic loss aspect, leading to a loss of social cohesion and indigenous knowledge of farming. We further demonstrate that the loss of social cohesion and indigenous knowledge of agriculture drives individualism among farmers. Our findings have implications for climate change adaptation strategies and policies across the global South.

Addressing unavoidable climate change loss and damage: A case study from Fiji’s sugar industry

Climate change loss and damage (L&D) presents an existential threat to the Fiji Islands. This case study examines how rural Indo-Fijian sugarcane farming communities face challenges in minimising, averting, and addressing L&D from cyclones. In-depth semi-structured interviews (n = 68) were conducted with 40 sugarcane farmers in two Indo-Fijian sugarcane communities, Barotu and Toko settlements in Western Viti Levu, Fiji, and with 28 key stakeholders from government ministries, academia, and climate change response services. Despite implementing climate change adaptation measures, Fiji’s sugar industry has faced devastating L&D from frequent and severe cyclones. Much of the climate change L&D to crops, property, and income was irreversible and unavoidable. Non-economic loss and damage (NELD) was found insurmountable in both field sites, including the loss of homes and places of worship, cascading and flow-on effects as well as the heightening of uncertainty, fear, and trauma. Evidence suggests that L&D, including NELD, is highly context specific, and UNFCCC’s broad NELD categories do not fully capture L&D at the local level. The systematic documentation of L&D within vulnerable communities would improve understanding of L&D, including NELD, and assist to facilitate the mobilisation of immediate support and action to address L&D in countries that lack the capacities to respond independently. This paper recommends crucial policy interventions such as livelihood diversification, integration of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, land tenure policy reforms, and the operationalisation of the Santiago Network for Loss and Damage.

Economic and Non-Economic Loss and Damage associated with Flood 2020 in Tuti Island, Khartoum, Sudan (In context of Climate Change)

Economic and Non-Economic Loss and Damage associated with Flood 2020 in Tuti Island, Khartoum, Sudan (In context of Climate Change)

What's at stake? A human well-being based proposal for assessing risk of loss and damage from climate change

Current scientific discourse on the assessment of loss and damage from climate change focuses primarily on what is straightforwardly quantifiable, such as monetary value, numbers of casualties, or destroyed homes. However, the range of possible harms induced by climate change is much broader, particularly as regards residual risks that occur beyond limits to adaptation. In international climate policy, this has been institutionalized within the Loss and Damage discourse, which emphasizes the importance of non-economic loss and damage (NELD). Nevertheless, NELDs are often neglected in loss and damage assessments, being intangible and difficult to quantify. As a consequence, to date, no systematic concept or indicator framework exists that integrates market-based and non-market-based loss and damage. In this perspective, we suggest assessing risk of loss and damage using a climate change risk and vulnerability assessment (CRVA) framework: the Impact Chain method. This highly adaptable method has proven successful in unraveling complex risks in socio-ecological systems through a combination of engaging (political) stakeholders and performing quantitative data analysis. We suggest expanding the framework's logic to include not only the sources but also the consequences of risk by conceptualizing loss and damage as harm to nine domains of human well-being. Our approach is consistent with the risk conceptualization by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Conceptualization and systematic assessment of the full spectrum of imminent loss and damage allows a more comprehensive anticipation of potential impacts on human well-being, identifying vulnerable groups and providing essential evidence for transformative and comprehensive climate risk management.

Economic and non-economic loss and damage to climate change: evidence from a developing country shrimp farms to cyclone Bulbul

Loss and damage have become a vital contemporary issue in climate change studies and actions in developing countries. However, studies are scant on this in the fisheries sector around the world. In Bangladesh, there is no study on the loss and damage in fisheries dependent communities. This study assesses economic and non-economic loss and damage to coastal shrimp farms due to cyclone Bulbul in Gabura Union of Shyamnagar Upazila, Satkhira district, using a mixed method approach. Results show that all shrimp farms’ dependent communities are affected by cyclone Bulbul to some extent. About 14%, 57%, and 29% of the farms were totally, heavily and moderately damaged due to farm inundation and dyke damage. The estimated mean loss and damage per shrimp farm was worth USD 4,633. Around 31% and 72% of the farms’ fencing nets and traps were lost, which was worth USD 333 per farm. There were also loss and damage to other resources such as houses, solar panels, livestock and agricultural crops where the estimated mean loss and damage per household was worth USD 3,170. This study reported that the rich shrimp farmers encountered proportionately more economic loss and damage than their poor counterparts. However, this does not mean that the poor suffered less. The current study found a range of non-economic loss and damage in different aspects of the shrimp farmers’ household members such as unbearable mental pain, deterioration of health, physical injuries, disabilities, etc. and access to services (e.g., inadequate food, lack of safe drinking water, lack of medical facilities, disruption of education systems), social infrastructure (e.g., damage of roads and markets) and disturbance of cultural functions. The findings suggest that urgent short- and long-term actions may be taken to save the aquaculture farms and dependent livelihoods from economic and non-economic loss and damage to cyclones in future.

Re-framing non-economic losses to non-economic impacts for effective policymaking: evidence from the Caribbean

ABSTRACT Weather-related natural disasters such as hurricanes are becoming more severe and more frequent due to human-induced climate change. Small Island Developing States are particularly vulnerable to such events. These extreme events have economic impacts on people’s lives but are also associated with non-economic losses (NELs) that are not easily quantifiable. The United Nations Convention Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has tasked the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage to find ways to ‘address’ these losses. While the UNFCCC and literature identify NELs, these remain broad and high-level examples, potentially not applicable in local contexts. Therefore, international climate change policies that are developed to address NELs are at risk of being inadequate and might not address the needs of people affected. This paper addresses this research gap based on interviews with residents from the Caribbean islands Dominica and Barbuda who survived hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017. Responses show that the categorization of NELs under the UNFCCC only partially aligns with those NELs identified by interviewees. Firstly, interviewees do not make a distinction between economic and non-economic losses and secondly the term ‘non-economic loss’ is best expressed as ‘non-economic impact’ in order to encapsulate the full breadth of NELs. Both terms should jointly be considered as fulfilling ‘life-functions’. HIGHLIGHTS The UNFCCC categories are not reflective enough of the broad range of non-economic losses (NEL) that exist. ‘Non-economic loss’ should be re-framed to ‘non-economic impact’ as a loss does not encapsulate the full breadth of losses identified by interviewees Another category for NELs is required as people do not always distinguish between economic and non-economic losses when economic items fulfil a life function The findings are detrimental for effective international and national policymaking

Cascading loss and loss risk multipliers amid a changing climate in the Pacific Islands.

Human society has experienced, and will continue to experience, extensive loss and damage from worsening anthropogenic climate change. Despite our natural tendencies to categorise and organise, it can be unhelpful to delineate clean boundaries and linear understandings for complex and messy concepts such as loss and damage. Drawing on the perspectives of 42 local and regional Pacific Islander stakeholders, an underexplored resource for understanding loss and damage, we explore the complexity and interconnectedness of non-economic loss and damage (NELD). According to participants, Pacific Islander worldviews, knowledge systems and cosmologies often make it difficult to separate and evaluate NELD independently, challenging the nomenclature of NELD categories developed through international mechanisms. Instead, NELD understandings are often centred on the interdependencies between losses, including the cascading flow-on effects that can occur and the nature of some losses as risk multipliers (i.e. one loss creating the risk for further losses). Most notably, losses to biodiversity, ecosystem services and land are critically linked to, and have cascading effects on, livelihoods, knowledge, ways of life, wellbeing, and culture and heritage. We argue that loss and damage is not always absolute, and that there are NELD that are arguably reparable. Concerning, however, is that biodiversity loss, as a risk multiplier, was considered the least reparable by participants. We put forward that NELD understandings must consider interconnectivity, and that biodiversity and ecosystem conservation and restoration must be the focus for interventions to prevent irreparable and cascading losses from climate change in the Pacific Islands.

Rethinking Richardson: Sexual Harassment Damages in the #MeToo Era

The 2014 judgment in Richardson v Oracle Corporation Australia Pty Ltd (‘ Richardson’) had a seismic effect on workplace sexual harassment claims in Australia. Overnight, the ‘general range’ of damages awarded for non-economic loss in such cases increased from between $12 000 and $20 000 to $100 000 and above. The judgment has made Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) litigation considerably more attractive for plaintiffs and resulted in greater judicial recognition of the pain and suffering experienced by sexual harassment survivors. Richardson’s impact has also been felt beyond that immediate context, with the judgment cited in support of higher damages in discrimination cases and employment disputes. However, six years and over 40 judicial citations later, Richardson’s broader significance remains unclear—particularly following the emergence of the #MeToo movement. Drawing on a doctrinal analysis of subsequent case law and qualitative interviews with prominent Australian legal practitioners, this article evaluates Richardson’s legacy and considers how sexual harassment litigation may further evolve to reflect changing societal norms.

From Paris to Makkah: heat stress risks for Muslim pilgrims at 1.5 °C and 2 °C

The pilgrimages of Muslims to Makkah (Hajj and Umrah) is one of the largest religious gatherings in the world which draws millions of people from around 180 countries each year. Heat stress during summer has led to health impacts including morbidity and mortality in the past, which is likely to worsen due to global warming. Here we investigate the impacts of increasing heat stress during the peak summer months over Makkah at present levels of warming as well as under Paris Agreement’s targets of 1.5 °C and 2 °C global mean temperature increase above pre-industrial levels. This is achieved by using multi member ensemble projections from the half a degree additional warming, prognosis and projected impacts project. We find a substantial increase in the exceedance probabilities of dangerous thresholds (wet-bulb temperature >24.6 °C) in 1.5 °C and 2 °C warmer worlds over the summer months. For the 3 hottest months, August, September and October, even thresholds of extremely dangerous (wet-bulb temperature >29.1 °C) health risks may be surpassed. An increase in exceedance probability of dangerous threshold is projected by two and three times in 1.5 °C and 2 °C warmer worlds respectively for May as compared to the reference climate. September shows the highest increase in the exceedance probability of extremely dangerous threshold which is increased to 4 and 13 times in 1.5 °C and 2 °C warmer worlds respectively. Based on the indicators of hazard, exposure and vulnerability, we carried out probabilistic risk analysis of life-threatening heat stroke over Makkah. A ten time increase in the heat stroke risk at higher wet-bulb temperatures for each month is projected in 2 °C warmer world. If warming was limited to 1.5 °C world, the risk would only increase by about five times, or half the risk of 2 °C. Our results indicate that substantial heat related risks during Hajj and Umrah happening over peak summer months, as it is the case for Hajj during this decade, will require substantial adaptation measures and would negatively affect the performance of the rite. Stringent mitigation actions to keep the global temperature to 1.5 °C can reduce the risks of heat related illnesses and thereby reduce the non-economic loss and damage related to one of the central pillars of a world religion.

Understanding and responding to climate-driven non-economic loss and damage in the Pacific Islands

Communities throughout the Pacific Islands region have experienced, and will continue to experience, extensive non-economic loss and damage (NELD) from climate change. Assessments of loss and damage, however, often fall short on their coverage of these non-economic dimensions, which can distort our understanding of climate change impacts, discount the experiences of some and skew future decision-making. This paper explores how stakeholders in the Pacific Islands understand NELD and what they perceive to be the best ways of responding to it. An open-ended questionnaire was used to collect qualitative and quantitative data from representatives from governments, donors and development partners, civil society, intergovernmental organisations, and relevant others. This study found that NELD in the Pacific Islands is understood, perceived and experienced through the lens of intangible values, identity and cultural landscapes, and this is encapsulated by a typology with eight interconnected core dimensions. These eight dimensions include: health and wellbeing, ways of being, future ways of being, cultural sites and sacred places, Indigenous and local knowledge, life sustaining tools, biodiversity and ecosystem services, and connection to land and sea. NELD is complex, entangled and interconnected, thereby significantly undermining entire socio-ecological systems. Moving forward, responding to NELD in the Pacific Islands region will require a comprehensive approach that protects, conserves and restores complex socio-ecological systems, and provides opportunities to work through loss and damage by means of education and training, safeguarding knowledge systems, community activities, cultural connection and maintenance, and strong relationships with land and sea.

Assessing the Costs of Droughts in Rural India: A Comparison of Economic and Non-Economic Loss and Damage

Assessing the Costs of Droughts in Rural India: A Comparison of Economic and Non-Economic Loss and Damage

Loss and damage in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (Working Group II): a text-mining analysis

ABSTRACT ‘Losses and damages’ refer to impacts of climate change that have not been, or cannot be, avoided through mitigation and adaptation efforts. After the establishment of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (WIM), Loss and Damage is now considered the third pillar – besides mitigation and adaptation – of climate action under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This paper studies what the Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC WGII AR5) has to say about this emerging topic. We use qualitative data analysis software (text mining) to assess which climatic stressors, impact sectors and regions the report primarily associates with losses and damages, and compare this with the focus areas of the WIM. The study reveals that IPCC WGII AR5 primarily associates losses and damages with extreme weather events and economic impacts, and treats it primarily as a future risk. Present-day losses and damages from slow-onset processes and non-economic losses receive much less attention. Also, surprisingly, AR5 has more to say about losses and damages in high-income regions than in regions that are most at risk, such as small island states and least developed countries. The paper concludes with recommendations to the IPCC for its 6th Assessment Report (AR6) to include more evidence on losses and damages from slow-onset processes, non-economic losses and damages and losses and damages in vulnerable countries. Key policy insights IPCC WGII AR5 discusses evidence about losses and damages predominantly in relation to sudden-onset disasters and economic costs. More research is needed on losses and damages from slow-onset processes and non-economic loss and damage, particularly in vulnerable countries in the Global South. Funding agencies should support research in these areas and IPCC WGII AR6 should pay more attention to these topics. Losses and damages are not only a future risk, but already a present-day reality for vulnerable people in climate hotspots. People-centred research by social scientists is crucial for enhancing understanding of what losses and damages mean in the real world.