event

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

Tue. January 13th, 2026
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 December 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. Our event will begin with opening remarks from Carlos Andrés Alvarado Quesada, former president of Costa Rica. Then, Carnegie fellow Alejandro Martin Rodriguez will moderate a discussion on these and other issues with Mathilde Laurans of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, Refugees International’s Jeremy Konyndyk, Dalila Polack of the International Organization for Migration, and the Migration Policy Institute’s Lawrence Huang.

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

Carlos Alvarado Quesada

Professor of Practice in Diplomacy, Tufts University and Former President of Costa Rica (2018 - 2022)

Carlos Alvarado Quesada is a Costa Rican politician, writer, journalist, and political scientist who served as the 48th President of Costa Rica from 2018 to 2022. In 2022, he joined the faculty of Tufts University as Professor of Practice in Diplomacy and as Senior Fellow in the Edward R. Murrow Center for a Digital World of The Fletcher School. Widely praised for his innovative approach to sustainable energy, his ambitious climate policies, and a highly successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he is a recipient of the National Geographic Society’s Planetary Leadership Award and the United Nations Environment Programme’s Champions of the Earth Award. 

Mathilde Laurans

Deputy Executive Director, Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage

Mathilde Laurans is the Deputy Executive Director of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage. She has 20 years' experience in development finance across climate and biodiversity sectors, energy and infrastructure. She served at the French Development Agency where she led the institution work on Climate and Nature finance including its participation in the funding arrangement on responding to economic and non-economic loss and damage. Mathilde brings a wealth of knowledge and leadership to the Fund at a critical time to operationalize it.

Dalila Polack

Project Coordinator, Costing Tool for Funds (CTF), International Organization for Migration

Dalila Polack is the project coordinator for the organization’s Costing Tool for Funds (CTF) at the International Organization for Migration. The CTF enables governments in Latin America and the Caribbean to comprehensively estimate losses and damages linked to human mobility and to access international resources to address them. She is an expert in the field of human rights and public policy, with experience in social projects formulation, management, and monitoring.

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.