Article Explores the Role of the Private Sector in Climate-Induced Relocation

In "Climigration and the Private Sector," A.R. Siders, assistant professor in the Disaster Research Center, Biden School of Public Policy and Administration, and department of Geography and Spatial Sciences at the University of Delaware, and Carri Hulet, CBI Senior Mediator, highlight climate-induced relocation, or climigration, as a type of adaptation that involves unique risks and opportunities for those in the business of community investment and development. 

Climigration is already happening, often favoring those with the resources to make the decision to move, and it will continue on a greater scale as climate impacts worsen. The private sector has been largely absent in the relocation discussion to date; however, this article posits that the private sector "could have a role in facilitating sensible, equitable, and profitable climigration." Actions the private development community can take to be proactive around climigration include:

• Anticipating and developing strategies to benefit from regulatory reform;
• Relocating their interests in safer areas and partnering with receiving communities to take in their workforce;
• Accurately disclosing risks and actions to investors; and
• Considering their moral obligations and potential liability from investing in areas threatened by climate impacts.

The financial sector specifically has the capacity to influence behavior by accurately reflecting climate risks in credit ratings as well as mortgage and insurance rates. As a whole, the private sector has an opportunity to advance innovative, progressive solutions to improve community safety and resiliency in the face of climate change.

Read the full article in the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's Community Development Innovation Review here. The New York Times covered this article and continued the conversation here.

A.R. Siders and Carri Hulet both serve on the Climigration Network Leadership.