Where do we go, from here?

The shift has already begun.

- Gowri S

"Climate change is not a distant threat. We can already see the impacts of it. People are being rendered homeless or jobless because of it, are moving because of it," says Alice Baillat.

A climate governance researcher, Baillat is a policy advisor with the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), one of the world's leading data sources on displacement (set up by the not-for-profit organisation Norwegian Refugee Council).

"Displacement has long-term impacts on economies, on societies. Every country needs to integrate displacement into national planning," says Baillat. "Climate change is what we call a risk multiplier."

What does she mean, and what should we be doing?

Well, as a species, we have always moved to alleviate risk.

Now, Baillat points out, the climate crisis is amplifying preexisting vulnerabilities, intensifying the impacts of poverty, threatening basic infrastructure and the idea of a safe life or livelihood for many.

Since 2008, IDMC has tracked one key area of impact: Displacement. They track this across four parameters.

1) extreme weather events such as storms, floods and wildfires.

2) geophysical hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis.

3) slow-onset hazards such as drought, desertification and sea-level rise.

4) geopolitical conflict and violence.

The numbers tell a clear story.

According to the latest GRID (Global Report on Internal Displacement) published by IDMC in May, there were an estimated 46 million displacements due to natural disaster (the first three of the four categories above) in 2024 alone.