Earlier this month, after the number of Central Americans trying to immigrate to the United States increased, the United States reached an agreement to strengthen security with its southern neighbors. People have fled from multiple crises in their own countries, and these crises are often interrelated, but the important driving factor is the impact of climate collapse. In addition to the damage caused by the record-breaking hurricane season last year, slower climate challenges such as droughts have also exacerbated food insecurity.

The climate crisis is rapidly becoming the main driver of migration; in 2019, 72% of the newly displaced are climate-related. Many of these journeys lead to cities. At the forefront of immigration and climate crises, mayors are responding, often taking faster actions than governments while reducing emissions, while providing humanitarian support to immigrants, even if they do not have formal responsibilities or budgets. But so far, countries have regarded climate migration as a major security challenge and have excluded mayors from planning and decision-making. Now, it is crucial that city leaders must be at their seats to make policy and investment decisions on climate migration.

If urgent action is not taken on the climate, many parts of the world will soon become uninhabitable. Rising sea levels, crop failures and record temperatures will drive an unprecedented movement of people. According to the World Bank report, by 2050, in only three regions (Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America), climate impacts may force more than 140 million people to move within their countries. Globally, it is estimated that as many as one billion people will be driven out of their homes in the next 30 years-less than half their lives. If so, human civilization will not have experienced such a large-scale migration in its history.

Those who run away may settle in cities that provide the most diverse opportunities for employment and access to services. This is especially true for people who are forcibly displaced, as more than 60% of refugees and at least 80% of internally displaced persons (IDP) live in urban areas.

Moving to the city is not without risks. Here, migrants and displaced persons may settle in marginalized communities, vulnerable to labor exploitation, dangerous working and living conditions, or human trafficking. Cities themselves are often extremely vulnerable to climate hazards, which means that newcomers may end up swapping one set of climate risks for another.

This leads to multiple pressures on cities, as migration increases the pressure on services and infrastructure, and climate impacts (from extreme heat and fires to floods and landslides) can displace people within the city. Despite this, the mayors are still taking action to protect new and existing residents, while preparing an inclusive green road to recognize the important contributions made by new immigrants and the assets they bring.

In Freetown, the population is expected to grow exponentially in the next ten years, largely due to climate migration across Sierra Leone. The government of Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr has been working with young immigrants to improve waste services in informal settlements. In the United States, Houston received hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and did not face major damage of its own until Hurricane Harvey hit in 2017. In response, under the leadership of Mayor Sylvester Turner, the City of Houston launched the “Houston Resilience Strategy.” , The plan aims to protect people in communities at risk and provide options for residents living in floods. In Bangladesh, an estimated 2,000 people arrive in Dhaka every day. They migrate from other cities along the coastline, which is increasingly affected by storms and rising sea levels. The Dhaka South City Corporation provides immigrants with a city-funded shelter to ease their transition to urban life.

In recent months, the global understanding of the issue of climate migration has gained greater recognition. In February, US President Joe Biden issued an executive order instructing officials to conduct research on the impact of climate damage on immigrants, including “protection and resettlement options” and “direct or indirect responses to local responses”. The resulting opportunities for immigration “come from climate change.” In response, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and a dozen other US mayors jointly issued a letter calling on the government to include them in the formulation of this agenda in.

In January, a French court ruled that a Bangladeshi man with asthma could not be deported due to the high level of air pollution in his country of origin. In the same month a year ago, the United Nations Human Rights Committee determined that these countries cannot Deported Bangladeshi men suffering from asthma. Seeking asylum due to climate-related threats. At a recent UN Security Council meeting to discuss the climate crisis, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a deep partnership to address its impact on migration patterns, food insecurity and growing tensions.

However, although these are positive steps, the policy framework that recognizes climate and migration rarely includes accountability mechanisms. This means that the person responding on the front line (the mayor) is not prepared to reduce risks, adapt and take care of the necessary legal, financial or policy support required by the community.

For many cities, the pandemic has exacerbated the lack of access to funds and resources. It is predicted that this year alone, local governments may lose 15% to 25% of their revenue. Local governments do more with less money, not only need greater power to increase their own income, but also need more support from the national government and the international community. Cities also need more access to local data to inform their planning and response efforts.

In a recent paper “Cities, Climate, and Migration”, C40 cities and the Mayor’s Migration Committee (MMC) demonstrated the ability of mayors to respond to local climate and migration behaviors, and outlined what national and international actors have done to carry out this work. The city needs to be effective.

The city is ready to meet the challenge and seize the opportunities of the climate and immigrant relations. However, the mayors cannot change everything alone. We urge governments and international agencies to join us in recognizing the role of mayors in this area, giving them a place in decision-making bodies, and releasing the financial support they need to achieve smart and inclusive practices to improve the quality of life. Displaced people, and communities receiving immigrants.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.