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The following submission from the Loss and Damage Collaboration (L&DC) is intended to inform the call for input for the 2024 report on “Climate Justice and Loss and Damage” by the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development.

In response to the call for input, members of the L&DC have provided detailed answers to each one of the six questions posed by the Special Rapporteur. The six questions are:

1. How is the realisation of the right to development impacted by both economic and non-economic loss and damage from climate change? How is the impact experienced differently and/or disproportionately by different individuals (e.g., children and women), groups (e.g., Indigenous Peoples) and States (e.g., Small Island Developing States)?

2. What are the obligations of States and other actors such as development finance institutions and businesses to prevent, mitigate and remediate the impacts of climate change-related loss and damage on human rights, including the right to development?

3. What is the legal and/or moral basis for States and other actors including businesses to contribute to the Fund for climate change-related loss and damage?

4. In addition to making a financial contribution to the Fund, what non-financial components may be relevant from a climate justice perspective (e.g., transfer of green technologies, building of capacity and relocation pathways for climate-induced migrants)?

5. How should a human rights-based approach to operationalise and administer the Fund look like (e.g., integration of considerations such as accessibility, non-discrimination, fair representation in decision making, gender responsiveness, and accommodation for marginalised communities and countries especially vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change)?

6. How to ensure that the Fund and/or climate finance (including for mitigation and adaptation) does not result in a debt trap for developing countries?