Mayors, Business Leaders join CMC for Discussion on Local Action on Climate and Migration at Climate Week
New York – Last month during Climate Week NYC, The Climate Migration Council co-hosted a panel discussion with C40 Cities and the Mayors Migration Council titled ‘From Challenges to Opportunities: Locally-led Action on Climate and Migration.’ Moderated by award-winning CBS News journalist Lilia Luciano, the discussion featured a robust panel of leaders from across the global, including: Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Mayor of Freetown, Brandon Johnson, Mayor of Chicago, Caterina Sarfatti, Managing Director for Inclusion and Global Leadership, C40 Cities, and Nishant Roy, Chief Communications and Impact Officer, Chobani.
The speakers highlighted opportunities for cities to drive the green transition by leveraging climate and migration policies to promote inclusive solutions that build resilience, protect displaced communities, and establish sustainable employment opportunities.
“As we confront climate change and other political conflicts, we have to make sure that we are matching people with opportunities,” said Brandon Johnson, Mayor of Chicago.
Caterina Sarfatti, Managing Director for Inclusion and Global Leadership, C40 Cities added, “In order to be able to [address the root causes of climate breakdown and related forced migration]...you need those local, national and global policies that slash fossil fuel use while redistributing resources, costs and benefits so that climate action or migration intervention is done in the most equitable and fair [way] possible. Mayors are paving the way, showing what this means in practice.”
This event follows the recent release of a first-of-its-kind policy brief by C40 Cities, the Climate Migration Council and Mayors Migration Council entitled, ‘Good Green Jobs and Labour Migration: Opportunities for Urban Leaders. The policy brief offers more than 30 examples of city-led initiatives instituted by city leaders such as Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan, Italy, Elizabeth Sackey, Mayor of Accra, Ghana, and Muriel Bowser, Mayor of Washington, DC, USA who are prioritizing inclusive climate action to drive the creation of good green jobs in sectors like agriculture, construction, and waste management.
As Mayor Sackey said, “Accra, and cities across all of the Global South, are confronting the effects of the climate crisis whilst also welcoming displaced populations from across their countries, many without access to formal employment or status, Locally-led climate action, driven by local-level data and backed by sufficient climate finance, presents a key opportunity for cities to facilitate the inclusion of migrants while protecting all residents from climate impacts."
City leaders can utilize these insights to better integrate migrants and refugees into the workforce through upfront financing for skills training, livelihood support and social protections, and other humanitarian services that are normally overlooked.
Two years ago, the Climate Migration Council was founded with the intention of being a consortium for like-minded leaders from around the world who share a commitment to putting people at the center of climate action and to accelerating global solutions to climate-related migration. Since the CMC’s founding, the Council has grown to over 80 members strong, and has brought the issue of climate migration to the forefront at global convenings including the City Summit of the Americas, Aspen Ideas: Climate, Climate Week NYC, and COP.
In addition to the policy brief, the CMC has created foundational resources on the issue of climate migration including an explainer which aims to promote a deeper understanding of key concepts, numbers, and terminology within the climate migration space, and a compendium, which is a practical toolkit aimed at advancing more concerted efforts on mobility within the context of the climate crisis.
To learn more about this policy brief and the work the Climate Migration Council is doing, please visit https://www.climatemigrationcouncil.org/ and follow us on X and LinkedIn.