When Gov. JB Pritzker signed the Climate Displacement Act last fall, Illinois became the only state in the country to enact legislation aimed at anticipating the ways in which climate-driven migration could transform life for its existing residents and those who may come after climate disasters elsewhere.

The law established a task force to investigate how domestic and international climate migration patterns could test Illinois’ infrastructure, resources and residents. And it required the newly formed team to publish two reports over the next two years outlining the state’s ability to address climate migration through at least 2050.

If Illinois succeeds, it could become a blueprint for how states make room for those displaced by climate catastrophes.

But only a year later, state officials have largely neglected their plans. Lawmakers have pushed back reporting deadlines and are yet to convene the task force, even though the first report is due in December.

Climate disasters force millions of people to leave their homes every year, growing the population of those commonly referred to as climate migrants who are on the move without specific legal protections. In the aftermath of floods, fires, and droughts, they face the challenge of finding a new place to rebuild their lives.

The hotter the planet grows, the higher the number of climate migrants is expected to climb. At the low end, experts predict at least 44 million people across the globe will be displaced within their own countries by 2050. That’s the equivalent of rehoming the entire population of Argentina. Very few places are planning for this possibility — making Illinois’ novel effort even more attention-grabbing.

Pritzker, the state’s top lawmakers and the heads of several state agencies were supposed to appoint members to the board no later than 90 days after the law went into effect. Until last week, only a single appointment had been made to the 17-seat task force.

WBEZ and Grist reached out to the state officials responsible for appointing the board, including Pritzker, four members of the Illinois General Assembly and the heads of seven state agencies.

“Governor Pritzker remains committed to fighting climate change and preparing Illinois for its impacts, including climate-related migration,” Jose Correa, a spokesperson for the governor, said in a statement to WBEZ and Grist. “This work is important, and the administration will continue working with lawmakers, state agencies, and stakeholders to establish a timeline and move the task force forward.”

The Governor’s office did not provide an estimate for when a timeline would be available.

Illinois Senate President Don Harmon responded to WBEZ and Grist by saying he would file paperwork to appoint state Senator Graciela Guzman, who represents Chicago, to the task force after being contacted for comment.

“We haven’t received a clear answer,” said Guzman, when asked about the delays plaguing the Climate Displacement Act, the law she helped pass last fall. “This has been two years in the making … I’m honored to serve on the Climate Displacement Task Force and ready to get to work.”

The first report, due at the end of the year, requires the task force to compile the latest data and scientific findings to determine the scale of climate migration expected within the United States and neighboring countries in the coming decades. The second report, due at the end of 2027, is supposed to assess how state agencies and existing programs will need to evolve in response to disaster-induced displacement.

Guzman, born to Salvadoran refugees in Los Angeles, introduced the bill in February 2025, just a month after 14 wildfires tore through southern California, scorching tens of thousands of homes and buildings in the second- and third-most destructive fires in the state’s history.

“My family, like many families there, were having some really real conversations: If these wildfires were to encroach upon the valley where they lived, where would they go?” she said.

They could come to Illinois.

The temperate Midwestern state is an agricultural powerhouse, adjacent to 20% of the world’s unfrozen freshwater, relatively safe from hurricanes and wildfires and is far enough inland that sea level rise is not an immediate risk.

Given these favorable conditions, Chicago, the state of Illinois and the Midwest have sometimes been billed as “climate havens,” a term for destinations marketed as insulated from extreme weather. But scientists and policy experts have pushed back on these claims for years, countering that no such place exists. They say the nature of climate change is global, and rising temperatures will have cascading knock-on effects on all life on the planet — including the Midwest, where climate change has been leaving its mark.

This past year, Chicago residents experienced significant and widespread flooding when its massive tunnel and reservoir system very nearly hit capacity. A record-breaking number of tornadoes, extreme heat and wildfire smoke that significantly worsened air quality levels for nearly a full week made the past summer unlike any recent memory.

“It’s all that anybody I’m around is talking about — just the incredible weather events that we have had in our state,” Guzman said. “It’s really laying bare why this kind of planning is important.”

Climate haven or not, she said the law is an opportunity for the state to understand its resources and plan for the potential influx of new residents — which could mean building affordable housing or creating new job programs. But before any of that can happen, the state needs a roadmap.

Illinois is the only state that has given itself an explicit mandate to prepare for population shifts due to climate change. However, other states have begun enacting or at least considering climate-related relocation. Maine has incorporated climate migration into broader statewide resilience planning. And lawmakers in California, Hawaii and New Jersey have introduced bills to begin planning for the protection of coastal communities vulnerable to rising sea levels and buy out some of the most at-risk properties.

Earlier this year, Alaska lawmakers passed a law pledging to help the low-lying, coastal communities of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok relocate in the devastating aftermath of Typhoon Halong.

In the Midwest, Cincinnati city officials circulated a blueprint to accommodate upwards of 500,000 new residents by 2050. The plan doesn’t market the city as “climate-proof.” Instead, it outlines ways to improve the quality of life for residents by increasing the availability of affordable housing and investing in public transportation — similar to Illinois’ proposal.

Illinois still has a long road ahead, according to Byran Jones, a geographer and professor at Baruch College in New York City, who has worked on landmark climate displacement and relocation reports.

“It’s a daunting task, and the state of Illinois needs to recognize that,” he said.

Part of the issue is that the term “climate migrant” is relatively new, and it has no universally agreed upon definition. Climate refugees also have no legal recognition under international law. Most modern-day protections for refugees are based on the 1951 Refugee Convention, which restricted the definition to someone “persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.”

Modeling climate change and migration independently is also difficult enough without trying to account for the two together. Migration alone is a complicated phenomenon driven by factors ranging from economic prospects to family ties, gender and poverty, making it difficult to project even before adding the pressure of climate change.

But Jones said that Illinois officials can build on existing research by identifying what makes the state special — such as its vast agricultural sector and major metropolitan area — and modeling how it could influence migration patterns. The work, he said, will be time-consuming, but climate change is already affecting migration patterns, and the best way to limit disruptions is to plan.

“It would be of tremendous service and certainly help to get the conversation started where there’s been limited conversation in this country, to this point,” Jones said.

This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.