Thinking the Future - Centering Climate Mobility Justice: Livability, Loss and Damage, and the Climate Governance Regime

Synopsis

The influence of climate change on mobilities is complex, and possible outcomes of the mobilityclimate nexus range from instances of mobility to immobility, with varying degrees of agency across such outcomes. Yet climate-related mobility, is largely portrayed in the media and in the public debate through the lens of one specific outcome: displacement across borders, particularly from non-Western to Western countries. These foci appear reflected in the current international policy landscape relevant for climate mobilities as well. The global climate change regime under the 2015 Paris Agreement (PA) is somewhat more expansive in its consideration of the challenges climaterelated mobilities . Yet the focus of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s institutional arrangements with regard to mobility as described in the PA remains narrow: first, it regards displacement as the central problem requiring address; second, it consigns climate mobilities to the Warsaw international mechanism for Loss & Damage (L&D). Consequently, the current setup is both normatively and practically limited in its capacity to address the whole range of mobility outcomes resulting from climate change. For more information, click here.