RID Spotlight
Resolving Climate-Related Internal Displacement at a Time of Crisis
By Walter Kälin
| February 12, 2026
This timely article by one of the world's leading experts on internal displacement highlights the growing crisis of climate-related internal displacement, which is unfolding against the backdrop of drastic funding cuts and humanity's apparent failure to adequately mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Arguing that the world is ill-prepared to address the crisis, including the severe challenges faced by populations living in protracted displacement, the author outlines a bold strategy for change. The blog calls on all stakeholders to acknowledge the severity of loss and damage related to displacement and prioritise durable solutions programming. It also highlights the systemic and financial changes required, including the need to make the still-elusive 'humanitarian-development nexus' a reality. Ultimately, the author makes separate but related recommendations to the United Nations, country donors and affected countries on how, through collaborative multi-year programming, the process of loss associated with displacement can be reversed and deliver sustainable improvements for affected populations.
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Researching Internal Displacement connects researchers, practitioners, policy-makers, students, artists and people from displacement-affected communities with cutting-edge research, analysis, creative materials and other resources on internal displacement.
The platform is hosted by the Refugee Law Initiative, a unique academic centre at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, promoting interdisciplinary research, teaching and exchange on law, policy and practice in refugee and displacement contexts.
LATEST RESOURCES
Towards Dignified Climate Relocation: Community Perspectives from around the Globe
By Sarah Koeltzow (ed.) and Erica Bower (ed.)
| November 3, 2026
“Towards Dignified Climate Relocation: Community Perspectives from around the Globe” is a thematic miniseries guest-edited by Sarah Koeltzow and Erica Bower, co-facilitators of the Coalition on Dignified Climate Relocation (CDCR). It brings together relocating community leaders, researchers, advocates and practitioners from across the CDCR to examine diverse experiences of planned relocation and identify lessons about what rights-respecting, community-led relocation looks like in practice and how national policy should enable it.
The series includes five ‘community perspective’ articles from the Americas, Asia and Africa, featuring the experiences and insights of coalition members from relocating communities and the organisations and researchers supporting them. An Introductory essay by the guest editors distils the experiences and lessons from the planned relocations spotlighted in the series.
The essay and the other articles in the series demonstrate that planned relocation is much more than an infrastructure project; it is a multidimensional process of economic, social and cultural rebuilding.
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Climate Relocations Around the Globe: Community Perspectives on Common Challenges and Solutions
By Sarah Koeltzow and Erica Bower
| November 3, 2026
This final article in the miniseries, Towards Dignified Climate Relocation: Community Perspectives from around the Globe, distils the experiences and lessons from planned relocations in Mexico, Panama, India and Malawi, as recounted in earlier articles of this series, co-produced by RID and the Coalition on Dignified Planned Relocation. The articles were authored by members of the Coalition, who accompanied or witnessed these relocations.
This essay, by the series guest editors, highlights the importance of community leadership, the need for “all of community” consultation and engagement, the importance of cultural sensitivity and responding to experiences of loss and grief, and the need to monitor outcomes over time. Critically, planned relocation isn’t just an infrastructure project; it is a multidimensional process of economic, social and cultural rebuilding.
Planned relocation is a unique form of climate mobility, and supporting the exchange of key insights from communities around the world is essential. That work is at the heart of the Coalition on Dignified Climate Relocation's mission.
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WHAT IS INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT?
Internally displaced persons (or IDPs) can be understood as:
"persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border."
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practitioners, policy-makers,
students, artists and IDPs
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IDP TRAINING
Our free course in
‘Internal Displacement,
Conflict and Protection’
Find out more
ABOUT US
Connecting researchers,
practitioners, policy-makers,
students, artists and IDPs
Find out more
CALL FOR PAPERS
NEWS AND EVENTS
New RID Series: “Towards Dignified Climate Relocation: Community Perspectives from around the Globe”
Researching Internal Displacement offers a platform for publishing insightful and engaging short pieces of writing, artistic productions and other research outputs, policy briefings and think pieces on internal displacement from our networks and others in a conversational and informal setting.
HOW TO CONTRIBUTE
Researching Internal Displacement publishes engaging and insightful short pieces of writing, artistic and research outputs, policy briefings and think pieces on internal displacement.
We welcome contributions from academics, practitioners, researchers, officials, artists, poets, writers, musicians, dancers, postgraduate students and people affected by internal displacement.