Ryan Plano
Ryan (he/him) works with Climate Refugees as a Project Officer, providing policy, communications, and advocacy support. He brings experience working in the legal and policy sectors, including for a boutique firm that advises Indigenous Peoples organizations in Canada. He provides assistance to a Vancouver-based non-profit helping to resettle LGBTQ+ refugees in Canada and conducts media monitoring for a Brussels-based advocacy organization.
During his time with Climate Refugees, Ryan has worked on various submissions and reports on climate change displacement and human rights, and he follows relevant developments at the international level, including the UNFCCC negotiations. He has authored numerous SPOTLIGHT pieces and co-authored the 2023 report “Climate Change is Controlling Everything, Let Them Compensate Us”: Stories of Loss & Damage in Kenya.
Ryan holds an MSc in International Migration and Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA in Political Science and International Development Studies from McGill University. He is interested in how civil society and international cooperation can improve policies and legal protections for forced migrants, especially for those who are not well served by the existing 1951 Convention framework.