Will "climigration" be your next global mobility policy?

A lot of things motivate relocation. Career advancement and better pay often lead the list but are followed by things like wanting to be with or closer to family, seeking out a lower cost of living, or just getting a change in scenery. Well, add climate change to the list of things prompting some people to move. This CNBC article explains that for those who are already feeling the direct impact of global warming and that can afford to relocate, climate change migration has begun!

Per Sea Grant (Univ of Hawaii), "climigration" was a term coined in 2008 by Alaskan human rights lawyer Robin Bronen to describe “forced permanent migration” of entire Alaskan communities due to climate change. Bronen states, “The critical elements are that climatic events are on-going and repeatedly impact public infrastructure and threaten people’s safety, so loss of life is possible. Catastrophic random environmental events, such as tornadoes and hurricanes, do not cause climigration.” And while some entire communities have had to "relocate" in the past, we are now seeing individuals that are trying to get out in front of the situation. Many of these folks feel like the writing is on the wall and the worst is coming...so rather than waiting to be forced to move, they are moving in advance.

Climate change is a more present experience for many these days, from local events to what we hear from friends and in global news. This Grid article ("Droughts and deluges show climate change's doubled-edged impacts, from Texas to China") provides some very real and recent examples of how many areas can experience both drought and flooding extremes. "Like Texas, China has also boomeranged from extreme floods to equally intense droughts. Last summer, Zhengzhou, the capital of central China’s Henan province, became a symbol of the damage the country’s floods can wreak. "

And the level of billion dollar weather and climate disasters has been unprecedented. Check out this map from NOAA NCEI:

Americans are feeling the impact. In fact, according to a survey conducted by Redfin, nearly half of Americans who plan to move in the next year say natural disasters and extreme temperatures factored into their decision to relocate. Per the Redfin survey, "Rising sea levels played a role for about one-third of people who plan to move in the next year, and many say they wouldn't relocate to an area with climate risk, even if it were more affordable." Interestingly it was those people between the ages of 35-44 years of age that felt the strongest too. Maybe not quite as surprising was that respondents in the Midwest were the least likely to say that climate-change risks were a factor in their decision to relocate. 

What does this mean? First, it means that some people won't move to certain locations now. Roughly 75% of Americans would be hesitant to buy a home In an area with climate risks and nearly 1/4th would not move to an area with climate risk even if it were more affordable.

Besides safety, the cost for housing is a significant investment. Buying in an area deemed as "higher risk" due to changing climate issues and continuing disasters is a huge concern. With concerns currently in many housing markets that prices have peaked, buyers are concerned about buying in at a price that they can't get out of. One in 5 Americans believe climate change is already negatively impacting home values in their areas, and 35% of homeowners have already spent $5,000 or more protecting their homes against climate risk, according to Redfin.  

A recent publication from the Lincoln Institute also shares some interesting stats on climate migration.

Do any of these statistics have you questioning anything about your global mobility programming? We have "de-location" policies out there to help people move away from high cost locations to another location now that remote work is more common. But as of today, I have not heard of any "climigration" policies that would apply to and support someone moving out of a risky climate impacted environment. With 162 million U.S. residents expecting to experience a decline in their environment over the next 30 years, odds are that your company will have people impacted at some point.