Fiji has long been at the forefront of developing policies to help its residents voluntarily relocate to escape the extreme effects of climate change. The country, which is comprised of hundreds of islands in the Pacific, faces rising sea levels, extreme weather, and other dangers.

But for many Fijians, the choice to pack up and leave home is a difficult one. Many have a deep spiritual and personal connection to place, a concept known as vanua. Meanwhile, as one of the largest economies in the region, Fiji is also a destination for migrants from other Pacific Island countries, including those threatened by climate change.

How has the government tried to support people who move? What considerations do residents consider when deciding whether to relocate? And what is the response to immigration from other countries?

On this episode, we discuss these issues with Sargam Goundar, a Fijian doctoral researcher at the University of Otago.

Chapters

01:41 Climate Impacts Unfolding in Fiji

04:54 Government-Led Planned Relocation Framework

08:17 The Concept of Vanua: Cultural Ties to Land

13:10 Community Concerns and Decision-Making Around Relocation

16:44 Fiji as a Regional Migration Destination

22:16 Policy Gaps and Research Priorities

The coordinated global response to climate change-driven displacement is relatively new. Just a few decades ago, virtually no governments were paying attention to the ways in which people were being displaced by extreme weather, sea-level rise, and other climate events. Although the international response remains a work in progress, significant strides have been made to bring the world together.

One of the people responsible for that coordination is Walter Kälin, a longtime humanitarian expert and legal scholar who is now the Envoy of the Chair of the Platform on Disaster Displacement, a country-led initiative that works to protect people at risk of climate-related displacement. In this discussion, he breaks down where things stand today in terms of a coordinated response and how things might evolve in the future.

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Chapters

01:15 Evolution of Global Displacement Policy

06:45 Climate Change Enters the Displacement Agenda (2004–2010)

10:28 The Nansen Initiative and the Birth of the Platform on Disaster Displacement

17:55 Lessons Learned: Bottom-Up Over Top-Down Approaches

19:58 Navigating Declining Funding and Political Fragmentation

24:30 Advice for the Next Generation

Climate change can be devastating for individuals’ health and safety. Climate-linked natural disasters can cause physical injuries and damage health-care systems, while slow-onset changes such sea-level rise can lead to the spread of disease and make it harder for people to obtain care.

In that context, leaving a climate-vulnerable place can potentially lead to better health outcomes—but only under the right circumstances.

In this episode, we speak with Ilse Ruyssen, an economist at Ghent University and the UN University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies, who leads the CliMigHealth research network.

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Chapters

01:19 Health Vulnerability among Climate Migrants

05:13 Groups at Highest Risk

08:36 When Migration Protects Health

11:51 How Climate Change Directly Harms Health

17:02 Strain on Health-Care Systems

22:18 Countering the "Migrants as Health Risk" Narrative

25:48 Mental Health and Climate Displacement

27:48 What to Do?