Climate Mobilities and Mobility Justice

According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC 2024), globally more than 20.3 million people were displaced within their own country in 2023 due to weather-related hazards. It is widely acknowledged that climate change is a compounding factor among the social, economic, and environmental drivers of displacement and migration, with both direct and indirect pathways (Wiegel et al. 2019; Nicholls et al. 2020; IPCC 2022). The World Bank projected in its “Groundswell II” report that, by 2050, climate change could compel up to 216 million individuals to relocate within their countries in six world regions (Clement et al. 2021). The bleakest forecast includes the assertion that, by the end of the century, there could be up to three billion people displaced by global warming (Vince 2022). These projections have triggered concerns that large-scale migration in response to sudden-onset climate-related disasters and slow-onset environmental degradation and sea-level rise will place increased pressure on livelihoods, public health systems, infrastructure, and social services.