Thinking about Tomorrow, Acting Today: The Future of Climate Mobility

The global response to climate change and human mobility is at a crossroads. In 2023, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted that it is “more likely than not” that global average temperatures will surpass 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in coming years. Combined with other, ongoing, global challenges this will put States, communities and individuals around the world under unprecedented pressure. Human mobility will be intertwined with all dimensions of the climate crisis over coming years and decades.

An extensive array of international agreements and frameworks attest to the urgency of addressing climate change and human mobility together. But a step-change is needed in the scale of action and the pace of change.

Global action on climate change and human mobility has to be proactive and forward-looking. It has to prepare for and anticipate the changes that are to come. And it has to identify in advance which groups and communities will be worst affected and are most at risk and are likely to move, or will be unable to move, over short and long-term time horizons. This information needs to reach policymakers, practitioners and donors in order to inform policies, actions and investments. And the whole process must accelerate to quickly pilot and scale-up effective action to increase the scope of options available to the individuals, households and communities affected by climate change, including the most vulnerable. There is no time to lose.

IOM is there to help: the Organization is deeply committed to working together with diverse partners to offer effective and innovative responses. This paper puts forward a menu of actions which can be implemented today, to not only address climate mobility that is already taking place but also to better prepare for and anticipate the impacts of climate change on the movement of people in the future. It highlights the breadth of opportunities which are already to hand for taking action now to prepare for tomorrow.

(This text was originally published in the report. Click here to read the entire paper.)