More than 100 leading experts from Europe, Africa, and Asia gathered at the Wellcome headquarters in London this week to challenge one of the most persistent myths about climate change: that migration is a failure of adaptation.
The conference on "mobility in adaptation to climate change" brought together scientists, policymakers, and researchers to explore what many have long treated as a taboo topic — that moving, in response to environmental upheaval, is not a desperate last resort but a legitimate strategy for survival. As sea levels rise and extreme weather intensifies across the warming world, millions of people are already making the choice to relocate. The question the experts gathered to address was not whether this will happen, but how the global community can support it equitably and effectively.
Prof Neil Adger from the University of Exeter, one of the conference co-convenors, framed the stakes plainly: "Our focus really is on the climate change adaptation community, showing that migration is not a failure of adaptation – it is part of adaptation." This reframing matters because it shifts how governments and institutions think about people on the move. Rather than viewing migration as a crisis to prevent, it positions mobility as one tool among many — alongside flood barriers, irrigation systems, and other measures — that communities can use to survive in a hotter world.
Dr Chandni Singh from the Indian Institute for Human Settlements offered a grounded perspective on how this actually works. She detailed the complex reality that shapes migration decisions: some people are forced to move by disaster, others are relocated preemptively by governments, and still others choose to stay put because they have the resources and resilience to do so. The poorest, Singh stressed, often cannot afford to move at all — a form of "immobility" that leaves them trapped in the most dangerous places. She illustrated this with the example of workers from Kolar village in India, who travel more than 100 kilometres daily to and from Bangalore for work, sending earnings back home where they attempt to dig wells to access water. Yet climate change and poor water management mean these wells repeatedly fail, perpetuating a cycle of exhausting migration.
Singh also highlighted the prevalence of what researchers call "translocality" — families living dual lives across two locations, often village and city. According to UN estimates cited at the conference, around 2.5 billion people are expected to migrate from rural to urban areas by 2050, with 90 percent of that shift occurring in Africa and Asia. This scale of movement demands serious planning and investment, not denial.
The conference placed particular emphasis on cities, where roughly half the world's population now lives. As one co-convenor noted, "A lot of the battles of climate adaptation will be won and lost in cities." This is where the world's poorest and most vulnerable often settle, and where policy decisions about housing, employment, water, and safety will determine whether climate migration becomes a path to stability or a descent into greater precarity.
Dr Manuela Di Mauro, head of climate-adaptation research at the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, urged the scientific community to speak the language policymakers understand, emphasizing that "we are all migrants" — a reminder that mobility has always been part of human history. The challenge ahead is building that political will to treat climate migration not as a failure, but as a reality requiring thoughtful, dignified support.