De Gruyter Handbook of Climate Migration and Climate Mobility Justice

Book excerpt: Accelerating climate change is widely predicted to have profound impacts on human mobility over the coming decades. Climate mobilities and immobilities invoke issues of justice and social inequality and pose numerous socio-cultural, health, economic, legal and political challenges. Current international legal frameworks and national governance mechanisms provide insufficient protection for people displaced by climate change who are often subjected to health risks, psychosocial trauma, human rights abuse, and even new climatic risks. At the same time, there is a need to better understand how climate change interacts with other mobility drivers and why many climate-affected people decide to stay put or remain trapped in at-risk locations. Drawing on a wide range of disciplinary traditions and featuring Indigenous voices and youth perspectives, this book introduces new conceptual frameworks and empirical studies to examine the unique challenges facing people on the move and those staying behind.