This op-ed by Chus Alvarez, WIMN’s Membership and Leadership Development Lead, and was published by Efecto ColibrÃ. It is one of a series of pieces in a collaboration between WIMN and Efecto ColibrÃ.
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September 18, 2026
Climate change is not an issue, it is the context we are working in. Colette Pichon from Taproot Earth shot that clip in the first lecture of the eight-week International School on Climate Mobilities (ISCM), organized by the Beyond Climate Collaborative.
Thinking about climate breakdown as the context, rather than as a separate issue, pushes us to consider how it impacts every aspect of our lives. Rising temperatures are melting ice, raising sea levels, and increasing the intensity of natural disasters and their consequences, which in turn are shaping people’s lives. It is too hot to work and people are too poor to rest; droughts and floods threaten access to water, food security, and human health; homes, lands, and livelihoods are repeatedly lost.
Mobility[1] within this context is not linear or binary: many are internally displaced without any safety or certainty; others are pushed beyond international borders. Some reclaim their right to stay while others have no means to move. Many wish to return and some are able to do so, but only to emptied places where they will start over and over again.
There are more than 120 million displaced persons across the world primarily due to violence, conflict and climate change. —Most of them internally or to neighboring countries, not to the enriched[2] nations building the physical and non-physical walls.— In a context of climate crisis it means that all displaced persons are affected by its consequences. Take the ongoing conflict in Sudan with over 11 million displaced persons. 900,000 of which are located in Chad, one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change. Heavy rains and flooding routinely destroy shelters and basic infrastructure and contaminate fresh water. The impact of armed groups along the Sudan-Chad border exacerbates the already harsh living conditions
Meanwhile, migrants are being used as scapegoats; criminalized, chased, and detained in the name of security. On too many occasions brutally assaulted or killed.
Enriched nations seem to have decided to stop migration at any cost. Literally at any cost, considering that the budget for the European Union border agency, Frontex, has increased by a whopping 6000% since 2006 (roughly €19 million) up to 2026 (approximately €1.21 billion). Frontex receives more money than any other single EU agency. Did nations choose militarising their borders to approach global climate action? Well, let’s keep digging into numbers and facts.
Click here to read the entire op ed at Efecto ColibrÃ.
