Neil Adger is a professor of Human Geography at the University of Exeter, UK, and one of the world’s most highly cited climate researchers. His work examines how societies adapt to environmental change, particularly through migration, health and social resilience. He has been a Lead Author in the IPCC’s Third, Fourth and Fifth Assessment Reports and a Commissioner of the Lancet Commission on Climate and Health, and won the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change in 2020. He recently shared his views with Bonik Barta. Interview conducted by Shafiqul Islam.

Your research looks at planned relocation as a durable solution for people displaced by climate change. Yet relocated communities often face poor infrastructure, limited livelihoods and long distances from markets and workplaces. Do you still see it as a durable solution?

There is a definite need for planned relocation. That need is real, and we have to make it work. The demand exists because climate impacts are increasing. We are about to go into a very strong El Niño year, with increased cyclone risk in the Bay of Bengal, and sea levels have been rising and are projected to rise further.

I believe it can be a durable solution if we do two things. First, give displaced people and their communities agency and a voice in planning their own movement. Second, put enough emphasis on services in the new places. It is not just about houses. It is about essential services, public space and gardens, so people can build community.

That probably makes relocation more expensive, and finding land is a challenge. So we may need to do fewer projects, but do them better, to make them more durable and sustainable.

Hundreds of experts, policymakers and advocates are gathering in Dhaka for an international conference on migration. What do you hope such a platform can achieve for displaced communities?

It is an absolute honour to be part of RMMRU’s 30-year celebrations, and of the international collaborations RMMRU has been involved in. RMMRU has been instrumental in work on labour migration, the rights of refugees and many other areas. My own collaborations have been mainly on the consequences of climate change and on future demographic and migration changes.

This platform can highlight the role Bangladesh and Bangladeshi science play internationally: the lessons from how planned relocation is implemented, how people at risk are identified, and the fate of migrants in cities, who are equally exposed to climate change. These lessons are now being learned around the world, and this celebration can show how much other countries can learn from Bangladesh.

How can research findings translate into real improvements in living standards, employment and livelihoods for displaced people?

Research only scratches the surface of lived realities. But from what people tell us, the messages for policy are fairly clear: human rights, agency, and empowering people to take their futures into their own hands, along with the crucial role of government in providing infrastructure and a good, democratic public space where civil society and the private sector can plan ahead.

If research is to change things on the ground, the process itself must be empowering for participants. It should not be a single meeting with a researcher from Dhaka, after which people wonder whatever happened to that research. That is an important lesson from our collaborations with RMMRU, which rightly focus on empowering participants rather than treating them as stories or data points for policy.

What key policy suggestion would you offer the government of Bangladesh for managing climate-induced displacement?

I have enjoyed working with RMMRU and many other Bangladeshi scientists, and I would not presume to tell the government what to do. Many plans and policies on the books appear, from the outside, to be exactly what is needed.

I would encourage the government to implement all the recommendations in the Delta Plan, so that the low-lying southern delta is protected and planned for. And to manage that infrastructure with the lessons from RMMRU’s research in mind: the agency of coastal communities, people’s right to move and have secure tenure, space for return and circular migration, and safe, resilient and sustainable destination cities. These are well-known challenges, and I am confident the government is focused, laser-like, on implementing what is already planned.

In coastal areas, entire families are leaving and primary school classrooms are emptying, while many migrants end up in city slums. What public investment and services should be prioritised so that people are not compelled to migrate in distress?

Distress migration is a terrible thing, where people feel forced to leave with no other options. Destination cities may look more sustainable, but they bring their own precarity and a lack of formal-sector jobs.

So development policy must target the sustainability of areas that are depopulating. This is not inevitable. The demand for food and agricultural products will remain, and a vibrant rural economy is part of the future of Bangladesh. Rural services are expensive, but the benefits far outweigh the costs.

An integrated policy, from the Delta Plan down to service provision, must be built into planning across education, labour, environment and central planning. There are real risks in Bangladesh centralising in a few very large metropolitan areas, in terms of food security, congestion and population density exposed to climate change. Regional development and thriving rural areas are really important.

Is there anything you would like to say to our readers in Bangladesh?

I have been travelling to Bangladesh to work with RMMRU for about 15 years, and I have always enjoyed my time in Dhaka, Chattogram, Khulna, Sylhet and elsewhere. The scientific community in Dhaka has so much to share with the world, which is why we keep coming back, and why it is a joy and an honour to work with you all.