Climate displacement is increasingly affecting vulnerable communities and small businesses across the U.S. and globally. Climate disasters, the long-term effects of climate change, and climate adaptation or mitigation strategies can kickstart or compound gentrification. New public and private climate-related investments can also significantly change communities, displacing small businesses and the residents whom they serve. BIPOC- and immigrant-owned small businesses in low-wealth neighborhoods are particularly vulnerable to climate disasters and displacement.

As climate events become more frequent, more needs to be done to center small businesses in equitable climate resilience and recovery efforts. While many cities and communities are investing in climate resilience and disaster planning, the needs of small businesses are often peripheral to—or missing entirely—from these plans. Small businesses have struggled to recover in the wake of recent fires, floods, and other disasters, due in part to barriers to accessing aid, insufficient insurance, and inadequate resilience preparations.

The 2026 SBAN Summit on Climate Displacement & Resilience will focus on equitable climate resilience and recovery strategies that keep small businesses in place. This online summit, co-hosted by the Gentrification & Urban Displacement Lab at the Boston University Initiative on Cities, will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET on November 12 and 13.

We invite proposals for pre-organized panels and individual presentations on topics at the intersection of climate displacement and small businesses, including the following:

• Resilience and disaster preparedness planning
• Community resilience hubs and mutual aid efforts
• Disaster insurance challenges and successes
• Funding and data for small business resilience and recovery
• Combatting post-disaster commercial property speculation
• Barriers to accessing disaster recovery programs
• Land use and regulatory tools to combat climate displacement
• Anti-displacement approaches to climate mitigation and infrastructure projects
• Strategies to address displacement caused by climate migration
• Tribal, Indigenous, Immigrant, and other culturally-informed approaches to small business resilience
• Policy advocacy for small business resilience and recovery

Proposals are due Tuesday, June 15, 2026. We invite proposals from small business support organizations and advocates. Submitters will be notified by early July about the status of their proposal. Please contact sban@umd.edu with any questions.