Climate change and human mobility

Climate Change and Human Mobility

Climate-related hazards like floods, storms and wildfires are already a major driver of global human mobility, playing a role in 26.4 million displacements in 2023 (IDMC, 2024). In many parts of the world, climate change is increasing these impacts.

This spotlight offers an overview of available data and content related to climate change and human mobility.

More contextual analysis will follow here soon.

Data | Mobility Impacts, Policy and Displacement

Climate Mobility Impacts Dashboard

CLIMB Database | Human Mobility and Climate Policies

This online database compiles over 1618 policy instruments - including 1388 national policy instruments in 172 countries and 230 bilateral and/or regional policy instruments. Each of these instruments contains provisions of relevance to human mobility in the context of disasters, the adverse effects of climate change, and environmental degradation.

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Internal Displacements due to Disasters

Among the total of 46.9 million new internal displacements registered in 2023, 56 per cent were triggered by disasters (weather-related hazards e.g. storms, floods and wildfires, and geophysical hazards e.g. earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis) (IDMC, 2024). The top 5 countries with the highest number of new internal displacements due to disasters in 2023 were China (4.7 million), Türkiye (4.1 million), Philippines (2.6 million), Somalia (2 million), and Bangladesh (1.8 million) (ibid.).

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Internally Displaced Persons due to Disasters

As of 31 December 2023, at least 7.7 million people in 82 countries and territories were living in internal displacement as a result of disasters that happened not only in 2023, but also in previous years. This represents 11 per cent decrease in the total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to disasters compared to 2022 (IDMC, 2024)

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Related themes and frameworks

Environmental Migration

Environmental migration is the “movement of persons or groups of persons who, predominantly for reasons of sudden or progressive changes in the environment that adversely affect their lives or living conditions, are forced to leave their places of habitual residence, or choose to do so, either temporarily or permanently, and who move within or outside their country of origin or habitual residence (IOM, 2021). Climate migration is a subcategory of environmental migration

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Climate mobility in the Sustainable Development Goals