Climate change is not an abstract threat – it is a lived and accumulating trauma for communities around the world. Slow onset processes and extreme weather events are destroying homes and livelihoods, degrading ecosystems, severing relationships between people and nature, and obliterating cultural and natural heritage. From ancestral burial grounds and sacred sites to forests, glaciers, and coastal lands, climate impacts are eroding the cultural and ecological foundations that shape identity, knowledge, well-being, and resilience.

These are non-economic losses (NELs): profound, sometimes irreversible harms that are difficult to capture in monetary terms but that fundamentally affect people’s lives, their histories, and their futures. This brief extracts key insights from the WIM ExCom NELs technical paper¹ to support stakeholders in recognizing and responding to these losses. It focuses on three interlinked areas – biodiversity and ecosystem services, territory and habitability, and cultural heritage – and outlines priority actions for urgent, equitable responses.