event

Turning Loss and Damage Into Action: Financing Climate Mobility via the Loss and Damage Fund

Tue. January 13th, 20261:00 PM - 2:30 PM (EST)
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Live Online

When people leave their homes—voluntarily or not—due to climate-exacerbated events, they endure economic and non-economic losses and damages. These include loss of income, housing, and savings; separation from traditional lands or cultural assets; and a lack of social support systems, among other costs. Developing countries often have limited resources to devote to recovery and struggle to fully meet the needs of affected populations.  

In November 2025, the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage took an important step to address this challenge by opening its first call for funding requests from developing countries, backed by $250 million under the Barbados Implementation Modalities. This moment raises critical questions. Can the Fund help unlock stronger global support for climate mobility?  Will stakeholders applying to access financing from the Fund prioritize mobility considerations? And who will bear the financial burden for the losses and damages suffered by those impacted by climate change?

Join Carnegie’s Sustainability, Climate, and Geopolitics program for a panel discussion that will bring together climate, mobility, and finance experts, as well as national governments, to discuss the implications of climate mobility funding. Carnegie Fellow Alejandro Martin Rodriguez will address these and other issues with Refugees International’s Jeremy Konyndyk and the Migration Policy Institute’s Lawrence Huang. More speakers will be announced soon.

MigrationClimate Change
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
event speakers

Jeremy Konyndyk

President, Refugees International

Jeremy Konyndyk is president of Refugees International. He has served in senior appointments at USAID in two U.S. administrations and in a range of NGO leadership positions.  As the director of USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), he led the U.S. government’s response to displacement crises including the conflicts in Syria, South Sudan, and northern Iraq. From 2017-20 he led the “Rethinking Humanitarian Reform” policy initiative at the Center for Global Development. He has worked extensively in the humanitarian NGO sector, serving in West Africa, East Africa, and the Balkans.

Lawrence Huang

Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Institute

Lawrence Huang is a policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute’s International Program, where he leads a research project on climate and migration and the intersections with development, social cohesion, labor migration, and protection. He has also worked on issues around climate financing, conducted external evaluations of climate migration programming, and advised governments, international organizations, and multilateral development banks working on the issue. 

Alejandro Rodriguez

Alejandro Martin Rodriguez

Fellow, Sustainability, Climate, and Geopolitics Program

Alejandro Martin Rodriguez is a fellow in the Sustainability, Climate, and Geopolitics Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His research focuses on the social dimensions of climate change, and he manages projects on climate mobility, peace, and security.