What We Do
Climate risk is displacing thousands of people across the US. Rigorous scientific research predicts this risk will increase to millions in our lifetimes. Proactive planning, grounded in equity and justice, can reduce harm, save lives, and disrupt our nation’s current reactive approach to increasingly catastrophic events. In most communities, relocation is very difficult to consider for emotional, cultural and financial reasons. The current options available to people who want to move are slow, expensive, hard to access and navigate, and too often dependent on first being devastated by disaster. These options are also often managed by institutions with long histories of abuse of power in less-resourced communities, particularly communities of color.
The Climigration Network brings community leaders and practitioners together to generate equitable, just, community-led approaches to relocation for people most affected by the worsening impacts of climate change – those who are now finding it impossible to live safely in place.
We build relationships between practitioners and frontline community leaders in the US who are experiencing flood and fire risk and displacement first-hand, and co-create new community-led, safe and equitable models for assisted relocation. We prioritize building capacity in less-resourced communities that want to consider relocation – these communities are experiencing the greatest risk, and their lessons will inform other communities’ policy advocacy at all levels of governance.
Read “Lead with Listening: A Guidebook for Community Conversations on Climate Migration”
We need more action around climate migration, and one way of getting there is to open up dialogue about it. The Network, led by our Narrative Building & Communications Workgroup, partnered with a creative BIPOC-led team of communications professionals, helmed by Scott Shigeoka and Mychal Estrada, to generate a guidebook for community leaders and practitioners.
Our Founding
The Climigration Network was founded in 2016 by the Consensus Building Institute (CBI), a nonprofit organization that helps stakeholders collaborate to generate breakthrough results on tough social, environmental, and economic issues. CBI and network members have worked together to build the network. The network was initiated with funding from CBI’s Board Reserve Fund, a fund intended to catalyze collaboration on complex issues that have the potential for significant societal impact. Current support for the Climigration Network comes from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Summit Foundation, and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Read more about how the Network got started here.
About Our Name
“Climigration” is a term coined by Robin Bronen, co-founder and executive director of the Alaska Institute for Justice, to replace the commonly used misnomer “climate refugee.”
Read Robin’s work about this issue: