From bustling megacities to remote Pacific islands, climate change has profound implications for how people live and work — and whether conflicts over water, land, and other resources become local or global security challenges. To analyze how environmental shifts shape both internal and external patterns of migration, the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy’s New Global Commons working group met in late 2016 to explore the nexus between climate change and human security.
The working group’s report, “New Challenges to Human Security: Environmental Change and Human Mobility,” summarizes these discussions and provides a set of guiding principles for policymakers, non-governmental organizations, and international institutions. More than wacky weather and swamped islands, climate change has the potential to put millions of people on the move worldwide. This report looks at what experts in human mobility, climate change, and resource management understand about the environmental drivers of migration, as well as what local and national governments are already doing to mitigate the impact of climate change on communities, as well as prepare for planned migration events.