Conference on Climate Change & Migration 2023

April 21, 2023

Conference on Climate Change & Migration

On April 21, 2023, Duke University’s Program on Climate, Resilience and Mobility (PCRM) hosted the Conference on Climate Change & Migration which aimed to bring together researchers, policymakers, sector experts, donors, NGOs, and other stakeholders to address the intersection between climate change and migration. This unique, day-long opportunity allowed experts to hear the latest on a range of topics that will influence the future of migration in the context of climate change.

WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS

Session One

Session Two

Keynote Address

Session Three

Session Four

Session One

Session Two

Keynote Address

Session Three

Session Four

Session 1: Big Data, Climate Change, and Migration

Session one highlighted some of the diverse ways that researchers are currently using big data and other open data sources to analyze human mobility and its intersection with climate. Session presentations covered both the opportunities and challenges of using this type of data to inform both research and policy.

Middle income groups in West Africa depend on agricultural yields and are unable to move due to drought. Improved soil moisture leads to migration. There is an opportunity to leverage mobile phone metadata.

- Sveta Milusheva

Movements for college are seen as the biggest driver of intra-national moving patterns in the US.

- Laura Schewel

Where people at US borders originate from is key to assess livelihoods and climate change impacts.

- Kevin Horn

Session 2: Climate Change & Internal Migration: Trends, Opportunities, and Challenges

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Session 2: Climate Change & Internal Migration: Trends, Opportunities, and Challenges

Session two explored the complex issue of internal migration, both in the United Sates and globally. The panel discussed the difficulties of decision makers face when trying to create frameworks to tackle internal migration caused by climate change.

Assessing the impact of flood incidences on migration across racial populations across USA, black populations move more after floods in coastal areas compared to inland areas. These results are more pronounced in urban areas.

- Gabriela Nagle Alverio

Climate migration hotspots could emerge as early as 2030, calling for immediate action in policies and programs. Recommended core policy directions include cutting down GHGs, pursuing inclusive climate resilient development in these emerging hotspots and embedding climate migration in development planning.

- Kanta Kumari Rigaud

National level policies on climate migration are sparse and there is no international framework for environmental mobility. Inter-agency coordination mechanisms are needed to collect evidence and develop response programs.

- Elizabeth Ferris

Keynote Address:

Keynote speaker Caglar Ozden discussed the overall landscape of migration and global development, framing the broader discussion on climate and migration in the context of a critical and historic demographic inflection point. He presented several potential broad policy responses to shift thinking around migration. Caglar Ozden is the co-director of the World Bank’s 2023 World Development Report entitled, “Migrants, Refugees, and Societies.”

Watch the full presentation in the video below.

62 million migrants are predicted in the next century. Climate change is a compounding factor and amplifies existing motivators and patterns of mobility.

- Çağlar Özden

Session 3: Climate Adaptation: Needs, Funding, Measurement, and Strategies

$300 billion is required just for climate adaptation according to UNEP Adaptation Gap report. Only 1.7% of tracked climate finance are targeted at smallholder farmers. We need innovative methods to reach this population and scale development programs.

- Sarah Bermeo

Localized donor operations are expanding rapidly but face the risk of duplication. Granular data and better coordination are required for targeted development programming.

- Lawrence Huang

Labor mobility can be a climate adaptation strategy. Schemes such as the seasonal worker program in Australia for Pacific Island countries have the potential to address labor shortage but should consider social and emotional costs.

- Limon B. Rodriguez

Session 4: International Climate Migration: Law, Human Rights, and Challenges

Options that exist for protection in immigration law such as asylum, temporary protected status & special humanitarian relief programs have shortcomings and no uniform coverage eligibility.

- Elizabeth Keyes

There is a need to go beyond tracking ‘trapped populations’ in times of crises. It is difficult to identify who is trapped outside of disaster settings and important to review involuntary immobility in slow-onset changes and non-crises.

- Kerilyn Schewel

There is a danger of hard lining immigrants into discrete groups in US. Lack of intersection means that climate migrants are not addressed, with most resorting to asylum as a legal basis.

- Theresa Cardinal Brown