Climate change has become one of the main drivers of human displacement worldwide.The intensification of droughts, extreme storms, and climate events is causing millions of people to abandon their homes, transforming the reality of entire countries and forcing the international community to seek urgent responses. Beyond the data, this phenomenon has direct and profound consequences on the daily lives of those forced to migrate: crop losses, collapsed cities, and increasingly fierce competition for basic resources such as water and land.
Water scarcity plays a central role in this scenario, pushing families to move both within their own countries and across borders, in search of better conditions for survival. According to the World Bank, one in ten migration processes on the planet is now linked to a lack of water, and the trend shows no signs of slowing.
Latin America and the Caribbean: The impact of the climate crisis on displacement
En Central AmericaThe Dry Corridor—which crosses Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua—exemplifies the gravity of the situation. Prolonged droughts destroy subsistence agriculture and leave rural communities without options, leading to internal displacement and northward migration, especially to Mexico and the United States. The figures are alarming: in 2022, more than 32 million internal displacements were directly related to climate disasters, primarily due to problems with access to water.
Latin America also faces critical challenges in countries such as Colombia, Bolivia, and Haiti. In Colombia, the combination of violence and climate change has triggered displacement. By mid-March 2025, nearly 700.000 people had been affected by displacement, lockdowns, and mobility restrictions triggered by both conflict and natural disasters. types of migration linked to these phenomena demonstrate the complexity of forced mobility in the region. Haiti is among the countries most at risk of acute food insecurity and hunger, with more than half of its population affected, and displacement is increasing due to gang violence and the adverse effects of climate change.
The climate crisis not only erodes food security but also deepens poverty and forces people to migrate. Bolivia, for example, faces serious problems stemming from inflation, declining agricultural production, and extreme weather events such as floods and fires, which put nearly a fifth of its population at risk.
Water as a trigger for conflicts and migrations
Water shortages are no longer just an environmental or agricultural issue; they are a matter of national security and geopolitics.In the African Sahel, desertification and resource scarcity have increased conflicts between farmers and pastoralists, while in Syria, the drought between 2006 and 2011 displaced more than a million people and contributed to the social instability that preceded the civil war. To better understand how climate change affects the regions, see the article floods and their impact on the population.
In European countries like Spain and France, water management has become so complicated that it has generated tensions between different sectors of society. More than half of Spain's territory is at risk of desertification, and dependence on water transfers and desalination plants is increasing., while disputes over the use of the resource are growing.
Institutional responses and the need for resilience
In view of the progress of these phenomena, International organizations and governments are forced to adapt their strategies and increase cooperationThe work of organizations like UNHCR focuses on protecting and assisting displaced populations, promoting durable solutions and strengthening protection in particularly vulnerable regions of Asia and the Pacific, where events such as flooding and water scarcity lead to forced displacement.
At the local level, initiatives such as the Human Mobility First Aid Facilitator Training Workshop in Mexico City are being promoted. These actions seek to strengthen institutional and community capacities to respond to mobility-related emergencies, ensuring humanitarian and culturally sensitive approaches. The role of community resilience and specific training is becoming increasingly important. in view of the increasing frequency of displacements linked to climate change.
Risk management cannot be separated from the phenomenon of forced displacement, as conflict, poverty, and climate change itself converge to make life increasingly difficult in many territories. The challenge is enormous and highlights the urgency of strengthening support networks, coherent public policies, and robust international cooperation frameworks.
This scenario demonstrates that human displacement resulting from climate change represents one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. Data and examples from Latin America, Africa, and other regions of the world show that forced mobility is increasingly driven by the environmental crisis. Only through active collaboration between communities, governments, and international organizations can we safely address the future of millions of people who are currently forced to leave everything behind.
