With the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change observing that climate change is contributing to humanitarian crises and increasingly driving displacement, this panel discussed how international law applies to human mobility associated with climate change, and how gaps in the applicable legal framework could be addressed.
The session was framed by a brief discussion of different forms of human mobility:
1. Migration, which can be regarded as predominantly a voluntary form of human mobility that takes place both within countries and across borders.
2. Displacement, which can be regarded as predominantly a forced form of human mobility that takes place both within countries and across borders.
3. Planned relocation, which can be regarded as the planned and permanent movement of a group of people to a destination site, initiated by a community or the state.
4. Trapped or immobile populations, as people who are unable to move out of harm's way or are unwilling to do so.
The session noted that the connection between climate change and different forms of human mobility—migration, displacement, planned relocation, and immobility—is complex and non-linear, with the relationship mediated by other dynamics, including socioeconomic, political, and structural factors. For instance, climate change influences sudden-onset hazards, such as floods and storms. Climate change also affects slow-onset hazards, such as sea-level rise and desertification. Both sudden onset and slow-onset hazards affect people's lives and living conditions, sometimes leading to imminent harm and destruction, and in other contexts leading to gradual changes such as environmental degradation and the deterioration of livelihoods.
The session highlighted that migration, displacement, planned relocation, and immobility associated with climate change is already occurring, and is expected to increase, while also recognizing that most human mobility will occur within countries, and within regions.
Given the diversity in human mobility—with respect to the level of compulsion, geography, temporality, and underlying structural and other factors—and associated assistance and protection needs, the session posed several questions on the role international law plays, and should play, with respect to:
1. Admission, rights, and solutions for cross-border migration and displacement associated with climate change.
2. The prevention of arbitrary displacement and dignified and rights respective solutions when displacement associated with climate change occurs.
3. Opportunities for people to stay in their homes, and in their countries, with dignity.
