Berlin, Germany — Liberia has formally endorsed the Climate Mobility Principles, reaffirming its commitment to a coordinated global response to climate-driven human movement and signaling a decisive shift from pledges to practical, community-centered action.
Delivering Liberia’s endorsement at the Second Berlin Climate Mobility Forum, during the High-Level Ministerial Session on “From Principles to Action—Forging the Climate Mobility Adaptation Agenda,” Dr. Emmanuel King Urey Yarkpawolo, Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Liberia, said the moment calls for unity, ambition, and locally grounded solutions.
“At a time when global cooperation is so often tested, this gathering is a rare chance to face our shared challenges together,” Dr. Yarkpawolo told delegates, emphasizing that Liberia’s endorsement is not symbolic, but a commitment to implementation that protects people and strengthens resilience.
The Berlin Climate Mobility Forum, held in Berlin on 18–19 June 2026, convenes heads of state, ministers, and senior leaders from around 80 countries, and is co-hosted by the Global Centre for Climate Mobility and the Robert Bosch Stiftung.
The forum is focused on building common approaches to climate mobility supporting people to remain safely in their communities wherever possible, and ensuring that when relocation cannot be avoided, it is planned and carried out with dignity. It also serves as a space to form partnerships and identify practical measures that move shared commitments into real-world action.
Dr. Yarkpawolo announced that Liberia working with the Global Centre for Climate Mobility is undertaking a Climate Mobility Deep Dive, a whole-of-society effort aimed at anticipating, addressing, and responsibly managing climate-related movement as part of Liberia’s broader adaptation pathway, while reducing future loss and damage.
To ensure the approach is community-led, the Global Centre’s team will travel across Liberia for nationwide consultations in early July, placing frontline experiences and priorities at the heart of the partnership.
Liberia highlighted that climate mobility is driven by the growing impacts of climate change rising seas, stronger and more frequent extreme weather, environmental degradation, and other pressures that affect homes and livelihoods. Against this backdrop, Liberia called for a Climate Mobility Adaptation Agenda grounded in local data and knowledge, noting that meaningful adaptation begins with understanding realities on the ground. Strengthening local data systems, improving climate information services, and ensuring decisions reflect lived experience will be essential to reducing risk before displacement becomes unavoidable.
Liberia also urged that climate finance must reach communities directly through funding that is accessible, predictable, and responsive to local needs. While welcoming the Global Centre’s call to allocate one percent of climate finance to communities, Liberia stressed that this remains “far too small” and must be increased, because communities bear the brunt of climate impacts.
In addition, the EPA emphasized that the Adaptation Agenda must be built through a whole-of-society approach, bringing together government, local authorities, civil society, women and youth groups, Indigenous and traditional communities, the private sector, academia, and development partners to share knowledge and shape solutions.
As a coastal West African nation facing rising climate risks, Liberia also pledged to help shape climate mobility action beyond its borders, including through ECOWAS and the Mano River Union, working with neighbors who share “one Atlantic shoreline and the same rising tide.”
Closing his statement, Dr. Yarkpawolo stressed that the ultimate goal is to ensure people can adapt safely—free either to remain where they are or to move with dignity.
“By turning these Principles into a shared Adaptation Agenda, we can build resilience, ease vulnerability, and ensure dignity, resilience, and sustainability for all,” he said.
For Media Inquiry:
Communications Unit,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Liberi