Climate Mobility
We have an enormous opportunity to plan for climate mobility in ways that will ensure safety, self-determination, and prosperity for all.
How are Climate Change and Migration Connected and Why Does It Matter?
We are living in an era of climate change, which is accelerating migration across the globe. Some places are already becoming unlivable, and people are on the move. While the majority of climate-displaced people can eventually return home, some cannot.
Climate impacts have already played a role in the displacement of many people currently seeking safety in the US and UK, as well as displacing people within these countries. People are also moving away from high-risk areas before disaster strikes.
The impacts of climate change are not felt equally, and climate-related mobility intersects with inequities that underlie many of the challenges facing our societies and our global community. Not all people have the freedom or the resources to adapt in place, or to move to safety.
Regardless of the context of individual countries, the forces of climate change and migration are not slowing. We know that the earlier we can take action, the better the results.
Our Approach
Our vision for our climate mobility work is to support a powerful movement ecosystem that can prevent climate displacement and mitigate its harms, and to ensure that when people must move, their lives and the wellbeing of communities to which they move will be improved.
We are investing in a robust and growing ecosystem of leaders, organizations, and movements that are developing solutions to the intersecting issues of climate and migration, as part of a pluralist and inclusive democracy. In moments of crisis come opportunities for transformation.
We invest across the spectrum of Climate Mobility.
Building Resilience in Place
We begin with promoting climate resilience and adaptation, protecting people’s ability to stay in the place they call home, and making it safer for those who are unable to leave their homes.
Mobility and Pathways to Safety
We seek to support safe, regular, and fair migration, within and across borders, for those who want or need to move, temporarily and permanently. This includes migration, displacement, and planned relocation.
Community Level Solutions
We seek to strengthen the capacity of communities to be welcoming and resilient, with an emphasis on social cohesion and fair outcomes for both newcomers and long-time residents.
We are supporting this work across six strategy areas:
Resilience in Place
Empower communities to have the resources and infrastructure they need to stay safely in their homes, preventing climate displacement.
Routes to Safety
Develop and expand policies and legal frameworks that support safe, fair, and orderly movement of people in response to a changing climate.
Building Climate Resilient and Welcoming Communities
Help catalyze and build support for climate resilient and welcoming communities.
Immigrants in the Just Transition
Immigrant and allied communities take actions to slow climate change and create a climate resilient, just future.
Narrative + Culture
We seek to transform narratives around climate-related migration to normalize migration as an adaptive response to climate change.
Cross-movement relationship building + ecosystem development
We seek to nurture and sustain relationships across all movements for justice, so that these movements are united in developing and implementing solutions to climate mobility, and in developing the ecosystem.
What Is Climate Mobility?
The umbrella term of “climate mobility” encompasses the following types of movement:
- Disaster displacement: The movement of people who have been forced to leave their home as a result of a disaster or to avoid an immediate disaster.
- Climate migration: The movement of people who, predominantly for reasons of sudden or progressive change in the environment due to climate change, are obliged to leave their habitual place of residence, or choose to do so, either temporarily or permanently, within a country or across an international border.
- Planned relocation: A planned process where people move away from their home, are settled in a new location, and provided with the conditions for rebuilding their lives.
- Trapped or immobile populations: A fourth category includes people who are unable or unwilling to move despite severe climate hazards.
Learn more in the full Climate Migration Explainer from IOM, Emerson Collective, and Climate Migration Council.
Expand Your Understanding
Explore further in our curated selection of resources.
Building for the Future: Preparing at the Local Level for an Era of Increased Climate Mobility
Public Opinion of Climate Migrants: Understanding What Factors Trigger Anxiety or Support
Enduring Change: A Data Review of Firsthand Accounts of Climate Mobility Impacts
Solutions & Impact
We and our partners are focusing not just on the analysis of the immense problems we face, but on the solutions.
Grantee Spotlight:
Taproot Earth
Learn how Taproot Earth is building power and solutions among frontline communities advancing climate justice and democracy.
Case Studies
In these case studies, we offer tangible examples of organizations working on climate mobility.
Harnessing the Power of the Immigrant Justice Movement for Climate Justice
21st Century Law for 21st Century Migration
Glossary
Disaster Displacement:
The movement of persons who have been forced or obliged to leave their homes or places of habitual residence as a result of a disaster or in order to avoid the impact of an immediate and foreseeable natural hazard.
Just Transition:
“Just Transition is a vision-led, unifying and place-based set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy… Just Transition describes both where we are going and how we get there.” (Learn more from Climate Justice Alliance)
Climate Migration:
The movement of a person or groups of persons who, predominantly for reasons of sudden or progressive change in the environment due to climate change, are obliged to leave their habitual place of residence, or choose to do so, either temporarily or permanently, within a country or across an international border. Climate change is often categorized as a threat multiplier, that is, a factor that accelerates other factors that motivate the temporary or permanent movement of people from their communities of origin.
Planned Relocation:
In the context of disasters or environmental degradation, including the effects of climate change, a planned process in which persons or groups of persons move or are assisted to move away from their homes or place of temporary residence, are settled in a new location, and provided with the conditions for rebuilding their lives.
Trapped or Immobile Populations:
“[P]opulations who do not migrate, yet are situated in areas under threat, […] at risk of becoming ‘trapped’ [or having to stay behind], where they
will be more vulnerable to environmental shocks and impoverishment.” This framing may apply to poorer households that may not have the resources to move and whose livelihoods are affected by environmental change. Alternatively,
it may also apply to communities who do not desire to leave ancestral lands despite the challenges posed by climate change.
Join Us
Email us for more information about our investments in climate mobility.
Banner Image: Berta Vallo for Unbound Philanthropy x Fine Acts