Latin America faces an increase in climate mobility

Significance

The region is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, with higher temperatures, drought and sea level rise among myriad factors driving people to leave their homes. Migration is already a major issue both within and between countries, many of which are transited by migrants travelling to the United States.

Impacts

• Intensifying effects of climate change will hit key economic sectors such as tourism.
• Climate change will shift the epidemiological profile of diseases such as dengue, placing extra stresses on public health systems.
• Risks of social unrest and conflict due to competition for increasingly scarce resources such as water will rise.
• Flare-ups of criminal violence in areas such as southern Mexico could create temporary shifts in climate migration trends.
• US strategies toward migration through Latin America will remain largely security-focused, especially under a second Trump administration.