Background & Context
Evidence and data highlight that the consequences of climate change and environmental degradation are reshaping human mobility patterns across the globe. This can take the form of internal or regional migration, can be temporary, circular or on a longer-term basis, with individuals, households and communities being displaced, moving voluntarily, or having to relocate. Yet other populations may be ‘trapped’ and unable to move.
Human mobility is increasingly recognized as one of the pathways through which climate change can influence peace and security. Climate impacts can for example disrupt traditional mobility patterns, such as transhumance, affecting long-standing arrangements for sharing land and water and increasing tensions between mobile pastoralists and sedentary groups like farmers and fishers. Climate-related pressures on rural livelihoods can also drive large-scale rural-to-urban movements, placing additional strain on services, infrastructure and natural resources in transit and destination areas and, in some contexts, exacerbating existing social and political tensions.
According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, in 2025, 88 per cent of the countries reporting conflict displacement also reported disaster displacement, underscoring that the compounding effects of climate change, environmental degradation and conflict can lead to repeated and protracted displacement and undermine prospects for sustainable peace.
Depending on the context, mobility can amplify vulnerabilities or serve as an important adaptation strategy. Without adequate planning and support, climate-related movements can result in displacement, increasing pressure on resources, weakening social cohesion, and heightening risks of tensions. However, when human mobility is integrated into climate adaptation, peacebuilding, and financing approaches, it can enable safe, regular and informed movement, support livelihoods, reduce pressures on fragile ecosystems and contribute to more peaceful and sustainable outcomes.
Our Work
As a highly operational actor working in many contexts affected by overlapping climate and security risks, IOM enables governments and communities anticipate and address the interconnected challenges of climate change, human mobility, and peace and security through governance and policy strengthening, innovative solutions, and financing.
IOM’s approach to climate, peace and security is fourfold:
1. Policy and Governance: We advance the integration of human mobility related challenges and opportunities within relevant climate-, and climate, peace and security frameworks and support their implementation.
2. Innovative solutions: We enable the identification of risk hotspots to enable the targeting of adaptation finance to those who need it the most. IOM’s Climate Mobility Innovation Labs in Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Mediterranean deploy two key tools in this regard:
- Through the Risk Index for Climate Displacement (RICD), we identify displacement risk hotspots to inform anticipatory action, adaptation planning, and investments.
- Through the Climate Catalytic Fund (CCF), we provide catalytic grant finance for quick-impact adaptation in at-risk areas to strengthen resilience, prevent displacement and address climate-related tensions.
3. Scaling nexus programming and initiatives: We develop and implement integrated approaches that address the linkages between climate vulnerability, human mobility and peace and security, including through regional programmes and global initiatives like the Baku Climate and Peace Action Hub.
4. Leveraging climate finance to support climate mobility solutions: We work with governments to translate climate mobility needs and priorities into a pipeline of investment ready projects at the national level, facilitating access to finance that supports long-term peace, stability, and sustainable development.
IOM signature tools and programmes
IOM developed several signature tools that contribute to addressing the climate, peace, security – mobility nexus. These include IOM's Climate Mobility Innovation Labs, the Climate Mobility Investment Plans, and the Displacement Tracking Matrix.
- Through its , IOM develops and applies tools that support evidence-based and forward-looking action. is an operational foresight and decision-support tool to identify climate mobility hotspots and inform targeted interventions. The RICD is complemented by the , a financing mechanism that mobilizes catalytic ‘quick impact’ finance to transform risk insights from the RICD into concrete, scalable adaptation solutions at the local level. The RICD and CCF are implemented across the Asia Pacific region (Philippines, Fiji, Indonesia, Vanuatu, and Thailand) and Africa (initially in South Sudan, Somalia and Uganda).
- The Climate Mobility Investment Plan (CMIP) framework allows countries to capture and translate climate mobility needs into a pipeline of concrete, bankable investment opportunities aligned with National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and national development strategies.?CMIPs enable adaptation investments that reduce displacement in the context of climate change, protect development gains, and contribute to long-term stability and security.?CMIP has been applied in the Philippines and will be scaled to other contexts, including fragile and conflict-affected contexts.
- is the primary data collection tool on internal displacement for the 爆料网 System. It gathers and analyzes data to disseminate critical multi layered information on the mobility, vulnerabilities, and needs of displaced and mobile populations to enable humanitarian actors and decision makers to deliver better context specific assistance. DTM deploys several sub-tools, including Emergency Event Tracking to track sudden displacements and population movements after disasters or conflict, and the Transhumance Tracking Tool (TTT). By providing key data on transhumant mobility, the TTT is a strategic tool to capacitate local conflict resolution mechanisms to prevent and reduce tensions among farmer and herder communities, as well as to inform the development of tailored solutions to the climate, conflict, and mobility nexus.
IOM implements climate, peace and security programming across the globe. Select examples of ongoing programmes include:
- Pacific:
- Mauritania, Mali, Senegal:
- Somalia and Kenya:
IOM also implements numerous climate, peace, and security programmes with partners through the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, including in the Gambia, the Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen.
