MR2025: Mobility, Adaptation, and Wellbeing in a Changing Climate | June 16-18, 2025 | Columbia University, New York City
In June 2025, the Columbia Climate School once again hosted the Mobility and Resilience conference – the leading forum addressing climate mobility – in partnership with the Global Centre for Climate Mobility and the Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change. Every two years since 2019, hundreds of researchers, policymakers, and members of affected communities gather in New York to advance the discussion on a range of topics – from managed retreat to adaptation in place, from climate law to housing and insurance markets, from green infrastructure to resilience-building in all its forms.
We are grateful for the support of the following sponsors:
CONFERENCE THEMES
Sessions and presentations at MR2025 engaged a wide variety of pressing topics at the intersection of mobility, adaptation, and wellbeing:
Planned relocation / resettlement | Migration as adaptation / maladaptation | Voluntary migration | Facilitated migration (government funding or support for migration) | Displaced populations | Daily mobility patterns (access to jobs and services)
Climate science for managed retreat | Non-coastal climate risks (flood and riverine areas; drought and dryland expansion; temperature extremes; wildfire in the urban–wildland interface) | Ecosystem conservation and migration | Green infrastructure (ecosystem-based adaptation; bioswales)
Environmental justice and equity (differential impacts; climate gentrification) | Sending zones (who leaves, who stays; involuntary immobility; economic impacts | Receiving zones and communities | Communication strategies (storytelling; teaching about managed retreat; arts) | Social science for managed retreat (vulnerability; risk; opportunity) | Community resilience (community organizing; vulnerable populations; social psychology; mental health; crowding out; residents’ perspectives)
Design and architecture | Land use / urban planning | Infrastructure approaches | When infrastructure fails
Governance, policy and planning (decision-making; international frameworks; federal management; state programs; local planning; multi-level policy coordination) | Buyouts and property acquisition | Legal issues and tools (property rights; zoning & land use; immigration)
Private sector perspectives (economic development strategies; corporate relocations; labor market dynamics) | Finance and economics (market signals; real estate; insurance; capital markets) | Receiving areas (growth management and sustainable regional development) | Housing markets | Insurance markets