IOM has co-organized the second Working Group Meeting on the Risk Index for Climate Displacement (RICD) with Thailand's Department of Climate Change and Environment, marking further progress in efforts to understand and address the links between climate change and displacement in the country.

Thailand is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, ranking 17th globally for extreme weather impacts. Communities across the country face escalating risks from more frequent flooding, intensifying rainfall, and prolonged heatwaves, making data-driven foresight to guide proactive interventions more critical than ever.

The Government of Thailand has increasingly recognized the importance of evidence-based preparedness and is developing a domestic Climate Risk Index to guide provincial planning. However, this index does not yet capture how rising climate risk translates into displacement, nor are there complementary measures in place to address identified climate displacement risks – both areas where the government has expressed interest in deepening collaboration with IOM.

Held on 5 August 2026 in Bangkok, the second Working Group Meeting brought together 21 key Thai stakeholders – representing government institutions, research centres and consultancy organizations – who serve as custodians of national datasets or bring relevant knowledge and experience to the field. CMIL introduced the RICD tool and its relevance for national climate mobility planning and policy, and facilitated collaboration and mapping with data-holding agencies and research institutions to gain access to the data needed to map hazard, exposure and vulnerability – together generating a comprehensive picture of climate displacement risk at the macro level.

Following the meeting, IOM gained a clearer understanding of how RICD indicators and data can be aligned with Thai government priorities, data standards and relevant strategies, as well as greater clarity on which institutions hold which datasets.

The next Working Group Meeting will focus on validating the macro-level data and selecting sites for the micro-level analysis.