Climate Change And Migration

The climate crisis is reshaping our world, as the climate is changing more rapidly than it has ever been in history. When they encounter social and economic imbalances, environmental vulnerabilities, climate changes can affect the quality of human life by affecting the quality of food, water, air and even economic security. Side effects of climate change can include displacement, destabilization of governments, and in some cases, even political instability and conflict. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that between 2008 and 2016, an annual average of 21.5 million people were forcibly relocated by natural disasters caused by climate change and estimates that tens of millions of people will relocate in the next 2-3 decades due to climate change. As the effects of climate change intensify, it is important to understand the underlying factors that may mitigate or exacerbate migration and develop strategies to both proactively and humanely manage these impacts and consider them in the context of any geographic or environmental factors that would disproportionately contribute to the destabilization of economically or politically important regions.