PRESS RELEASE: Dozens of Leaders Join Climate Migration Council, Including Leading Academics and Policy Experts From Around the World
Council Broadens Membership, Adding Experts in Immigration Policy and Academia to Help Center Migration in Climate Change Discourse.
NEW YORK – The Climate Migration Council announced today 13 new members are joining a growing cohort of world leaders who share a commitment to putting people at the center of climate action and accelerating global solutions to climate-related migration.
Incoming members include leading academics, security analysts, and humanitarian specialists from across disciplines who will bolster the Council’s makeup of former heads of state, mayors, and advocacy leaders. Advancing the interdisciplinary makeup of the Council means that it will be able to more effectively pursue its goal of centering migration in climate change discourse by approaching the crisis from the most diverse set of viewpoints possible.
“Climate migration is, at its core, a manifestation of the policies that affect the planet. If we are going to accelerate global solutions to climate-related migration, we need to draw on our greatest strength: the diversity of expertise amongst our members,” said President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, founding member of the Climate Migration Council. “The addition of these new councilmembers will bring new insight, new perspectives, and new power to our collective voices as we develop solutions to the deeply interconnected and urgent challenges of climate change and migration.”
The new members joining the Climate Migration Council are:
Sharon Burke, President of Ecospherics and former Assistant Secretary of Defense (2010-2014)
Dr. Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe, Professor of Population Studies, University of Ghana
Saleemul Huq, Director, International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB)
Tjada D'Oyen McKenna, Chief Executive Officer, Mercy Corps
Nicole Melaku, Executive Director, National Partnership For New Americans
Abdikarim Ahmed Moge, Mayor, Hargeisa, Somaliland
Dr. Raya Muttarak, Professor of Demography, Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Bologna
Amy Pope, Director General-Elect, International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Dr. Matthew Scott, Senior Researcher on Climate-Related Human Mobility, Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund University
Dr. Andrew Selee, President of the Migration Policy Institute
Peggy M. Shepard, Executive Director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice
Janti Soeripto, President & Chief Executive Officer, Save the Children
Dr. Adelle Thomas, Senior Fellow, University of The Bahamas and Senior Scientist, Climate Analytics
The Climate Migration Council currently has 74 members and continues to gain momentum. At Climate Week NYC, the Climate Migration Council brought together leaders from across disciplines to discuss migration as one means of successful adaptation to climate change, the legal and policy changes needed in order for migration to occur safely and humanely, and leveraging investments to avert, minimize, and address climate-driven displacement.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Climate Migration Council, please reach out to press@climatemigrationcouncil.org, or visit ClimateMigrationCouncil.org. To learn more about climate-driven migration, please read the Climate Migration Council’s primer.