The Platform on Disaster Displacement, the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Network on Migration together hosted a side event on “Data Frontiers: Understanding Human Mobility in the Context of Disasters, Climate Change and Environmental Degradation” marking the official launch of the CLIMB Database: Human Mobility in the Context of Disasters, Climate Change and Environmental Degradation Database.

This panel discussion was part of the International Dialogue on Migration, whose theme focused on “Think about tomorrow, Act Today: The Future of Human Mobility and Climate Change.”

Every year, millions of people find themselves compelled to move in the context of sudden-onset hazards, such as floods and storms. At the same time, the lives and livelihoods of countless others are affected by the slow-onset impacts of climate change and environmental degradation, with many leaving their homes and others remaining trapped in areas at risk. Unless such population movements are safe and orderly, they can challenge human security and people’s rights, especially in rapidly growing urban areas.

Faced with this phenomenon, many governments have already developed policies and instruments to address these challenges from a migration governance perspective. Yet, given the scale and complexity of the topic, implementing commitments to assist and protect those compelled to move across borders in the context of disasters, climate change, and environmental degradation remains a difficult task ahead.

To support such efforts, the CLIMB Database was created to compile provisions relevant to governing human mobility in the context of disasters, climate change and environmental degradation in existing national and regional policy and legal instruments, to strengthen the existing evidence, and enhance policy coherence across existing frameworks.