Rising seas, killer heat, endless droughts, and monster storms are no longer future warnings, they are today’s reality, pushing entire communities out of the places they’ve called home for generations.
On Tuesday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) delivered an urgent message ahead of COP30 in Brazil: world leaders must finally put people at the heart of climate plans, especially migrants, displaced families, Indigenous groups, and the poorest communities bearing the heaviest blows.
Homes That May Never Be Safe Again
Every year, extreme weather drives millions from their land. Most never cross a border they simply become invisible refugees inside their own countries. But the IOM warns the next stage is far more terrifying: whole countries could vanish under water or turn into permanent dust bowls.
“We Just Want to Go Home”
Ugochi Daniels, IOM Deputy Director General, says the clearest answer she hears from displaced people is heartbreakingly simple: “Let us return home.”
Yet for many, “home” no longer exists in the same way. Crops fail year after year. Wells stay dry. Islands shrink. That’s why Daniels insists the world must invest heavily in helping people stay safely where they are through better early warnings, stronger local economies, and climate-proof infrastructure.
COP30: Time to Stop Talking and Start Paying
Daniels called the upcoming summit in Belém a make-or-break moment.
Enough speeches about climate finance reaching the most vulnerable, she said. Now the money has to actually flow directly to local communities, Indigenous peoples, and migrants on the move.
“Human mobility has to be front and centre in every climate decision,” Daniels declared. “COP30 is our chance to turn promises into real protection and real solutions.”
With the planet already locked into more warming, the question is no longer if millions more will be forced to move — it’s whether the world will finally give them the support and dignity they deserve.
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