Extended Abstract

Introduction

Climate hazards and climate change has become one of the defining global challenges of the twenty-first century, profoundly affecting human societies through increasing temperatures, prolonged droughts, sea-level rise, floods, storms, and other climate-related hazards. These processes are altering environmental conditions, undermining livelihoods, intensifying social vulnerabilities, and reshaping patterns of human settlement across the world. Consequently, human mobility has emerged as one of the most important responses to climatic and environmental change. During the past three decades, the relationship between climate change and human mobility has received growing attention in both scientific research and international policy. Nevertheless, the field remains conceptually fragmented. Multiple terms—including environmental migration, climate migration, climate-induced displacement, environmental refugees, planned relocation, and climate mobility—have been used to describe overlapping but distinct forms of population movement. The absence of conceptual consensus has complicated comparative research, policy development, and communication between scientific communities. Recent scholarship has gradually shifted from viewing migration as a direct consequence of environmental degradation toward understanding mobility as a multidimensional process shaped by the interaction of climatic, economic, political, institutional, demographic, and social factors. Within this perspective, the concept of climate mobility has increasingly replaced the narrower notion of climate migration because it encompasses the full spectrum of human responses, including migration, displacement, planned relocation, voluntary immobility, and involuntary immobilityThis review synthesizes the evolution of climate mobility research by examining its conceptual development, historical evolution, theoretical foundations, policy progress, and current research gaps. It aims to clarify key debates and provide a coherent conceptual framework to support future research and evidence-based policymaking.

Methodology

This study is a narrative-critical review based on a systematic examination of internationally recognized scientific literature. The review draws on peer-reviewed journal articles, seminal theoretical works, and reports and policy documents from leading international organizations, including the IPCC, IOM, UNHCR, UNEP, and the World Bank. The literature was selected according to three criteria: scientific influence, conceptual relevance, and contribution to the development of climate mobility research. Particular emphasis was placed on highly cited publications that have shaped theoretical debates, conceptual frameworks, and policy discussions. Comparative analysis was used to examine the historical evolution of the field, theoretical perspectives, conceptual transitions, and emerging research directions. Rather than conducting a bibliometric analysis, this study employs an interpretative synthesis to identify major paradigm shifts, trace the evolution of key concepts, compare competing frameworks, and highlight persistent research gaps relevant to future scholarship and policymaking.

Results and discussion

The review demonstrates that scientific understanding of climate-related human mobility has undergone profound conceptual and theoretical transformations. Although environmental factors were largely marginalized during much of the twentieth century, they have regained prominence with growing evidence of climate change and increasing international policy attention. The findings reveal a shift from deterministic explanations toward multidimensional perspectives that view climate mobility as the outcome of interacting climatic, economic, political, institutional, demographic, and social factors. Consequently, integrated frameworks—particularly the mobility paradigm, migration-as-adaptation approaches, and the Foresight framework—offer more comprehensive explanations than classical migration theories by incorporating migration, displacement, planned relocation, immobility, adaptation, governance, and social vulnerability. The review also highlights the growing incorporation of climate mobility into international governance through major global agreements and IPCC assessments, despite the absence of a universally accepted legal definition of climate migrants. Nevertheless, important gaps remain, particularly regarding internal mobility, seasonal migration, trapped populations, longitudinal data, and the integration of climate adaptation, migration governance, and sustainable development.



Conclusion

Climate mobility has evolved from a peripheral topic into a well-established interdisciplinary field at the intersection of climate science, migration studies, geography, sociology, economics, law, and public policy. The literature demonstrates a clear shift from deterministic explanations toward integrated frameworks that recognize the interactions among environmental, social, political, and economic processes. Among these, the mobility paradigm offers the most comprehensive perspective by encompassing migration, displacement, planned relocation, and immobility while emphasizing vulnerability, adaptive capacity, governance, and context-specific decision-making. Despite substantial progress, important theoretical and empirical challenges remain. Future research should move beyond seeking direct causal links between climate change and migration and instead examine the pathways through which climate risks interact with social structures, institutions, and adaptation strategies. Expanding interdisciplinary research, improving longitudinal data, strengthening evidence on internal mobility and trapped populations, and better integrating climate mobility into climate adaptation and sustainable development policies will be essential for advancing both scientific understanding and effective policymaking. Ultimately, climate mobility should be viewed not only as a consequence of climate change but also as a fundamental dimension of human adaptation and resilience in an increasingly uncertain future.