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This article is part of The Rooftop, a blog and multimedia series from Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½â€™s Future of Land and Housing program. Featuring insights from experts across diverse fields, the series is a home for bold ideas to improve housing in the United States and globally.

Welcome to The Rooftop. In this audio Q&A, Future of Land and Housing program director Yuliya Panfil speaks with fellow and founder David Lubell about domestic climate migration.

Listen to Yuliya and David’s conversation here.Ìý

Rapid-onset disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires, along with slower-onset climate impacts such as extreme heat and sea-level rise, already have millions of Americans on the move. Projections vary, but experts predict that over the coming decades, climate impacts could force between 20 million and 50 million Americans away from the Sun Belt and the coasts and towards more climate-resilient cities across the Great Lakes and the Midwest. Yuliya and David spoke about how cities can prepare for population inflows, and the lessons the immigration welcoming movement could offer for cities preparing to receive domestic climate migrants.Ìý

Key Takeaways:Ìý

• Some projections suggest a third of the global population could be forced to move due to climate change within 50 years. Domestically, up to 50 million people may relocate in the coming decades to more climate-resilient cities in the U.S. heartland.Ìý
• For these cities, the core challenge of welcoming newcomers is structurally similar, whether the newcomers are domestic climate migrants or immigrants. Cities require ready systems and services, welcoming infrastructure, public education around migration, and intentional planning for equitable integration between the receiving community and newcomers.Ìý
• Unlike immigration planning, however, climate migration planning must account for a receiving city’s own exposure to climate risk—from relatively protected Great Lakes cities planning for gradual, long-term arrivals, to places like Atlanta or Orlando facing faster, larger inflows, to highly vulnerable cities like Miami or Houston planning around displacement and population loss. Cities also don’t yet fully understand climate migrants’ needs, as climate migration is a newer phenomenon.Ìý
• Building a movement around climate migration depends on empowering early-adopter communities. Pilots are essential proof points: communities considering action need to see real examples of places that have already done the work, which requires willing early adopters to go first. is an example of an early-adopter city in the climate migration space.Ìý
• Assembling early adopters into an ecosystem of partners drives knowledge sharing, helping to identify priorities to move from theoretical conversations to tangible problem-solving.
• Data is also crucial to build the narrative and help cities plan responsibly. Data showing measurable benefits to early-adopter communities is what eventually draws in federal, state, philanthropic, and private funding
• Climate migration planning must be conducted now, before numbers grow large—building infrastructure and healthy ecosystem culture while a field is still new is far easier than retrofitting it later.

Editor’s note: The views expressed in the articles on The Rooftop are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policy positions of Â鶹¹û¶³´«Ã½.Ìý