Our understanding of the impact of climate change on human mobility is in its early stages. We know sea level rise threatens coastal communities around the world and that heat waves, storms, drought, and wildfires made more frequent and severe by climate change will shape global migration patterns. Research on the scale and geographic distribution of climate migration is still nascent, as is the development of potential policy responses.

Properly understanding the interplay between climate change and migration is of critical importance for policymakers. Getting our understanding and responses right—or wrong—has enormous implications not only for hundreds of millions of migrants and forcibly displaced people, but also for security and human development.

This policy brief presents a new framework for the United States' leadership on climate migration, first addressing two fundamental questions that are important to understanding why such a new framework is needed:

1. What is the relationship between climate change and human mobility?
2. What recourse and protections are currently available to climate migrants?