Planned relocation should be a major component of national strategies for disaster risk management, climate change, and development, says a recent report by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The report comes as the result of an expert consultation held in Sanremo, Italy, in March of last year amid increased research linking the effects of climate change with migration and displacement.

The effects of climate change “are here now” and pose a “serious challenge” for the United States, said Alice Hill, White House senior advisor for preparedness and resilience, at the Wilson Center on July 29. [Video Below]

Island communities, particularly those from small island developing states, are often reported in policy documents, academic papers and mainstream media as being “most vulnerable” to climate change and disasters. While such a classification might serve to raise awareness of their plight, or be used as impetus for global action, this approach can also result in unintended (and damaging) attitudes and consequences. This is well-illustrated by recent off-the-record discussions with several donors and policy-makers who have inappropriately implied it is “too late” to “save the islands,” given their vulnerability to current and impending climate change impacts.

Is it possible to prepare for the unexpected? Could anyone have foreseen, for instance, a nuclear meltdown triggered by an earthquake-induced tsunami? Or a brutal band of transnational militants quickly capturing Iraq’s largest dam while attempting to establish a new Islamic caliphate? Perhaps not exactly, but that shouldn’t stop us from anticipating unlikely events, says Chad Briggs, a risk assessment expert and strategy director of consulting firm GlobalInt.

Nearly 1 billion people lack reliable access to clean drinking water today. A report by the Water Resources Group projects that by 2030 annual global freshwater needs will reach 6.9 trillion cubic meters – 64 percent more than the existing accessible, reliable, and sustainable supply. This forecast, while alarming, likely understates the magnitude of tomorrow’s water challenge, as it does not account for the impacts of climate change.

“You can’t build a peaceful world on an empty stomach,” Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday at a high-level working session on resilience and food security, quoting Norman Borlaug, the father of last century’s “Green Revolution.”

Asia is going through an unprecedented wave of urbanization. Secondary and tertiary cities are seeing the most rapid changes in land-use and ownership, social structures, and values as peri-urban and agricultural land become part of metropolitan cityscapes. All the while, climate change is making many of these fast-growing cities more vulnerable to disasters.