Climate change can be devastating for individuals’ health and safety. Climate-linked natural disasters can cause physical injuries and damage health-care systems, while slow-onset changes such as sea-level rise can lead to the spread of disease and make it harder for people to obtain care.

In that context, leaving a climate-vulnerable place can potentially lead to better health outcomes—but only under the right circumstances.

In this episode, we speak with Ilse Ruyssen, an economist at Ghent University and the UN University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies, who leads the CliMigHealth research network.

Chapters

01:19 Health Vulnerability among Climate Migrants

05:13 Groups at Highest Risk

08:36 When Migration Protects Health

11:51 How Climate Change Directly Harms Health

17:02 Strain on Health-Care Systems

22:18 Countering the "Migrants as Health Risk" Narrative

25:48 Mental Health and Climate Displacement

27:48 What to Do?