FMR 76

Climate change: Choices for displaced people

November 2025

From rising sea levels threatening coastal populations to the intensifying frequency and severity of natural hazards, the climate crisis is rendering homes uninhabitable and futures uncertain for millions – especially for those who have been least responsible for climate change. The contributions to this issue of FMR emphasise that responses to climate displacement must be proactive, rights-based, and human-centered, moving beyond reactive measures. Authors from five continents share from their unique perspectives to bring you a rich body of articles which we hope will inform and inspire, bringing fresh thinking and provoking debate.

FMR 76

Climate change: Choices for displaced people

November 2025

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Alice Philip and Jo Boyce

From the Editors

Hannes Einsporn and Jassin Irscheid, Robert Bosch Stiftung

Foreword

Speaking of ‘choice’ in the context of people being forced to move amidst the climate crisis can feel audacious. What options do people displaced by climate impacts really have? Their decisions are made under conditions of uncertainty, amid shrinking options for migration and mobility and dwindling international solidarity.

Ayoo Irene Hellen, Qiyamud Din Ikram and Jocelyn Perry

Leading in displacement: refugees at the forefront of climate action

Refugee voices are excluded from key decision-making spaces related to climate change, but their leadership is crucial for the creation of fair and effective policies. Three case studies highlight opportunities for input, as well as the barriers that remain.

Kiril Sharapov

No choice but to move: climate displacement and eroding livelihoods in Mongolia

As climate change reshapes Mongolia’s environment, herders are being pushed to cities – not by sudden disaster, but through slow erosion of options. Their stories challenge dominant ideas of choice, agency and what counts as ‘displacement’.

Rahul Balasundaram

Confronting climate injustice: how Canada can support displaced people

As one of the world’s leading historical polluters, Canada can uphold climate justice by facilitating mobility and supporting development and adaptation initiatives for those displaced by climate change.

Philippa Weichs, Emmanuel Zangako Peter and Isaiah Du Pree

What is choice without knowledge? Climate literacy for displaced communities

Climate literacy enables greater agency, decision-making, and meaningful refugee participation. One refugee-led organisation in Egypt is piloting workshops and supporting community-led initiatives to help translate knowledge into power.

Michael Nabil Ruprecht and Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson

Displaced by climate, marginalised by the State: Afro-Colombians in Medellín

Climate change is intensifying racialised displacement in Colombia. For internally displaced Afro-Colombians from the Chocó, environmental degradation intersects with conflict and state abandonment in shaping forced migration.

Seun Bamidele

Sacred lands: belonging and displacement in Nigeria

Being forced to move means more than just the loss of property and income – it entails a deep rupture of cultural and spiritual ties. That means relocation requires solutions that are not just technical – they must centre community perspectives.

Claudia Fry, Giovanna Gini and Annah Piggott-McKellar

Slow versus sudden: tailoring planned relocation to different hazard types

The degree of suddenness of a climate hazard influences any subsequent relocation in multiple ways – from the institutional response to the psychosocial experience for affected communities – requiring approaches tailored to different timelines.

Kaja Burja and Nika Burja

Unstable ground: navigating climate relocation through Bosnia’s invisible fault lines

Europe’s climate crisis is fuelling extreme weather, displacement and fragility. Technocratic relocation fails to acknowledge human attachment, cultural memory or the role of inequality. True adaptation demands justice, which means recognising the invisible fault lines that shape vulnerability, resilience and belonging.Europe’s climate crisis is fuelling extreme weather, displacement and fragility. Technocratic relocation fails to acknowledge human attachment, cultural memory or the role of inequality. True adaptation demands justice, which means recognising the invisible fault lines that shape vulnerability, resilience and belonging.

Architesh Panda and Sumanta Banerjee

Beyond survival: two cases of planned relocation in India

Early examples of planned relocation in Odisha saved lives but left livelihoods fragile, increased onward migration and curtailed access to common resources, underscoring the need for inclusive, livelihood-centred climate mobility policies.

Bella Mosselmans, Matthew Scott, Yumna Kamel and Anila Noor

Disasters, displacement and legal choices: how communities are using courts to seek justice

People displaced by climate-related disasters are not passive recipients of aid or policy decisions. They are taking strategic legal action to secure their rights and hold States accountable in domestic, regional and international forums.

Bishawjit Mallick, Oishi Rani Saha and Rup Priodarshini

Intergenerational strategies for adaptive livelihoods: evidence from Bangladesh

Intergenerational strategies among climate-displaced families play a crucial role in facilitating adaptation and livelihood reconstruction, underscoring the need for resilience planning that acknowledges these dynamics.

Taofik Oyewo

Adapting to climate uncertainty in Nigeria

Communities repeatedly displaced by floods in Nigeria are not passive victims. They are relocating, supporting each other and innovating to adapt, efforts that deserve recognition and better support amid intensifying climate impacts.

Evan Easton-Calabria

Already displaced, now facing disaster: climate change impacts on displaced people

Forcibly displaced people are highly exposed to climate-related hazards. Increasing their access to early warning systems, early and anticipatory action and climate-adaptive programming are necessary for effective adaptation.

Laura Kraft

Neo-colonial pathways to safety? Climate displacement and Australia and New Zealand’s migration policies

Australia and New Zealand’s permanent migration pathways for Pacific Islanders who are at risk of climate displacement may reflect geopolitical interests and neo-colonial power dynamics, rather than rights-based protection.

Vittorio Bruni and Yvonne Su

Imagining alternative migration futures for the Pacific Island States

Climate forecasts often project inevitable displacement for the inhabitants of Pacific Island States, but scenario planning shows that migration futures are not fixed and uncertainty need not be a barrier to action.

Sarah Hoyos-Hoyos, Yousef Khalifa Aleghfeli and Emmanuel Keyeremeh

The promise of satellite imagery in addressing climate displacement

Satellite imagery can offer a powerful new perspective on the drivers of climate displacement, as case studies in Ghana and Libya demonstrate, but ethical concerns and data limitations call for caution, especially amid advances in digital technology.

Wassim Ben Romdhane, Bram Frouws and Jennifer Vallentine

Between displacement and entrapment: climate-induced (im)mobility in the Middle East

A complex interplay of aspirations, capabilities and constraints determines whether people stay or move in response to climate hazards. Understanding how these factors interact can help inform more nuanced interventions.

Anne Beatrice Cinco, Paul Tacon, Héloïse Ruaudel and Alice Vozza

Supporting decent work for those forced to move and those who want to stay

Ensuring access to decent work in the context of climate displacement is an essential element of supporting a ‘just transition’. Emerging practices from across the world suggest how climate action and labour strategies can reinforce each other.

Gabriel Ajabu Mastaki

Environmental justice and planned relocation in Central Africa

While internal displacement due to climate hazards is accelerating in Africa, access to relocation solutions remains highly unequal. The concept of environmental justice can shed light on the underlying causes and suggest avenues for reform.

Jose Daniel Rodriguez Arrieta

Speaking up: using participatory communication to support inclusive relocation

Incorporating locally appropriate means of communication and deliberation into decision-making around planned relocation gives agency to affected communities, as case studies from Vietnam and Peru demonstrate.

Julia Blocher and Dalila Gharbaoui

Centring Choice and Place in Climate Displacement-related Non-Economic Losses

Climate-related displacement causes non-economic losses – of land, heritage and identity – that cannot be adequately addressed through financial compensation alone. Policy responses must centre affected people’s values and choices, prioritising dignity, cultural continuity, habitability and social cohesion.

Oenone Chadburn and Maria Theresa Niña Espinola-Abogado

Anticipatory financing: enabling choice amid displacement in the Philippines

Disaster-prone communities are being given financial support ahead of predicted cyclones through anticipatory financing mechanisms. Broadening mitigation options has significantly influenced how households approach evacuation and livelihood protection.

Micheal Gumisiriza

When climate change blows off your roof and nobody comes: a refugee’s reality check

One man’s story encapsulates the contradictions at the heart of responses to climate-induced migration, which demand resilience but deny refugees the means to shape their own futures. A more imaginative, people-centred approach is urgently needed.