November 12, 2025

Dear John,

The impacts of climate change are intensifying across every region of the world, becoming less possible to ignore. Rising seas, droughts, floods, and heat waves are displacing communities, testing infrastructure, and challenging the frameworks that govern migration and protection.

As the annual UN climate change conference kicks off this week, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) is examining some of the most urgent and complex questions of our time: How does climate change drive human migration and how can policymakers respond?

MPI’s research and podcast series explore the intersection of environmental change, mobility, and policy innovation.

• Start with the fundamentals in Climate Migration 101: An Explainer, a concise introduction to how environmental change drives migration.
• Dive into a special collection of articles from our Migration Information Source magazine, providing a global overview from the effects of changing climates on small island nations all the way to sprawling cities.
• Learn which are the key institutions and financing models that support adaptation, resilience, and planned relocation efforts worldwide in Funding Climate Mobility Projects: Key Players and Strategies for Growth.

MPI’s acclaimed Changing Climate, Changing Migration podcast speaks with top experts globally about the ways in which climate change is shaping global mobility and how communities are adapting.

Recent episodes include:

• “The Young Lives Uprooted by Climate Change,” which looks at the particular risks and challenges for young people.
• “Will Climate Change Push Some People into Statelessness?” explores the urgent legal and humanitarian questions about citizenship and sovereignty as rising seas threaten to submerge Pacific Island nations.
• “Connecting the Dots: How Climate Detectives Link Human-Caused Environmental Change to Migration” explains how researchers trace the links between human-caused environmental change and population movement.
• “Small Islands, Big Challenges: Climate Change and Migration in the Caribbean” features a discussion of climate influences on mobility across the Caribbean.
• “Can AI Predict Climate Migration?” explores how machine learning can forecast migration trends in response to climate shocks in West Africa and the ethical dilemmas such tools pose.

Join the conversation. Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your audio content.

And find all MPI resources on climate migration at www.migrationpolicy.org/topics/climate-change.

Migration Policy Institute
Stay up to date on MPI's events and newest publications.

Migration Data Hub
Find the latest immigration statistics, maps, and numbers for the United States and other countries.

Migration Information Source
Read a unique, online journal that provides fresh thought and global analysis of international migration and refugee trends.