1 billion.

That is the amount of people who

the International Organization
for Migration estimate

will be environmental
migrants by the year 2050,

driven by a combination
of climate change,

environmental degradation,
sea level rise and disasters.

My name is Christian Neubacher
and during the summer I

interned with the International

Organization for Migration,

the United Nations agency,

which provides support
for people to move,

for people who are on the move,

and for people to stay within
the IOM as it's called.

I interned with the
migration environment,

climate change, and risk
reduction division.

A relatively small team which

works to elevate
the importance of

environmental migration
in governmental policies

related to both migration
and climate change.

During my internship, I
was fortunate to work at

a number of different projects
related to this area,

including country-level reports,

policy briefs,
communications campaigns,

talking points, and a blog post

on how one particularly
vulnerable group,

indigenous youth, who had
moved to urban areas was

affected by this nexus

between migration
and climate change.

As aspiring changemakers
in the policy sphere,

it's paramount that we use

the limited resources that
we are likely to have at

our disposal to achieve

the maximum policy
change that we can.

And during my internship,

I learned three
important lessons which

I will apply moving
forward to maximize

my impact on which I also hope

that all of you will be
able to apply as well.

First, be consistent and
clear in your messaging.

Decision-makers have

countless decisions
to make every day,

yet they have limited hours and

limited resources to
accomplish them all.

Consistent and
clear messaging can

help overcome this shortcoming.

During my internship,
this involves adapting

my blog post
and the talking points

to explicitly include
the key messages

that my division wanted
to get across to

policymakers and
thereby ensuring that

these key messages became

omnipresent in
decision-makers minds.

Alongside clear messaging,

it is important that we use our

convening powers in
whatever organization

or entity we worked for.

Bringing together stakeholders
into a discussion.

Will have an outside impact
beyond just ourselves.

During my internship, I
was fortunate to play

a minuscule role during

an environmental
migration summit

that was held in
Kampala, Uganda,

which brought together Heads of

State and key
stakeholders to outline

common priorities
and principles for

the region related to
environmental migration.

And this was a positive example

about how bringing
people together in a

community forum can

achieve significant
impact on policy.

Finally, be relentless.

Policy change in particularly

in politically charged and
contentious questions,

does not occur overnight.

Rather, we must keep at it,

repeating these
consistent messages

and using our convening power

over and over again to ensure

that decision-makers know
what our priorities are.

And so to everyone who is

gathered here today
and who is watching,

I urge you to be consistent
in your messaging,

use your convening powers
and be relentless.

Through this, we can achieve

the policy change that we
hope to see in the world.

Thank you.