EU-backed study to explore climate and migration links

Among all the statistics about temperature increase, polar melting and sea level rise associated with a warming world, the impact on hundreds of millions of people forced to leave their homes due to climate change is often not fully considered.

Kieran Cooke of the Climate News Network explores the issues and reports on a new International Organisation for Migration (IOM) research programme that will initially examine how environmental factors influence migration patterns – and impact on overall policy making – in six countries: Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Mauritius, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.

Migration can be one way people find of adapting to climate change. The IOM says: 'Migration in the face of global environmental change may not be just part of the ‘problem’, but can also be part of the solution.'