Though specific data are not available, case studies are highlighted by existing research, for example: Foresight, 2011 Piguet and Laczko, 2014 Ionesco, Mokhnacheva and Gemenne, 2017. Slow-onset processes such as droughts or sea level rise also increasingly affect people’s mobility worldwide. In some cases, official sources on humanitarian visas by countries such as the United States (US), Brazil and Argentina for Haitians can be used. Global data on cross-border movement in the context of disasters are, however, limited, with only a few notable cases being examined so far (Nansen Initiative, 2015 Ionesco, Mokhnacheva and Gemenne, 2017). While the majority of mobility in the context of environmental and climate change more generally, including disaster displacement, occurs within the borders of countries, some people are forced to move abroad. Disaster displacement figures were the highest in a decade ( ibid.). More than 98 per cent of the 30.7 million new displacements in 2020 were the result of weather-related hazards such as storms and floods and concentrated in East Asia and Pacific and South Asia. Five countries accounted for more than 60 per cent of the new internal displacements due to disasters: China (5.1 million), Philippines (4.4 million), Bangladesh (4.4 million), India (3.9 million) and the United States(1.7 million) ( ibid.). Specifically, disasters in 2020 triggered more than three-quarters (30.7 million) of the new internal displacements recorded worldwide ( ibid.). During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people stayed in their exposed homes during disasters despite early warnings because of fear of infection. Like in past years, disasters remained the leading trigger of new internal displacements globally. Others have defined planned relocation as referring solely to the collective movement of a community, the “permanent (or long-term) movement of a community (or a significant part of it) from one location to another, in which important characteristics of the original community, including its social structures, legal and political systems, cultural characteristics and worldviews are retained: the community stays together at the destination in a social form that is similar to the community of origin” (Campbell, 2010:58–59).Īlthough the term “climate refugees” is often used in relation to forced migration in the context of climate and environmental change, this is not a legally valid term as the 1951 Refugee Convention does not recognize environmental factors as criteria to define a refugee.Īt the end of 2020, around 7 million people in 104 countries and territories were living in displacement as a result of disasters that happened not only in 2020, but also in previous years (I DMC, 202 1 ). The top 5 countries with the highest number of internally displaced persons due to disasters were Afghanistan (1.1 million) India (929,000) Pakistan (806,000) Ethiopia (633,000), and Sudan (454,000) ( ibid.). Planned relocation refers to persons whose livelihoods have been re-built in another place ( IOM, 2014a).Such displacement can occur within a country, or across international borders. Such displacement may take the form of spontaneous flight or an evacuation ordered or enforced by authorities. Environmentally displaced person refers to “persons who are displaced within their country of habitual residence or who have crossed an international border and for whom environmental degradation, deterioration or destruction is a major cause of their displacement, although not necessarily the sole one” ( IOM, 2011:34 in IOM, 2014:13). The term disaster displacement “refers to situations, where people are forced or obliged to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of disasters triggered by natural hazards.Environmental migrants are defined as “persons or groups of persons who, predominantly for reasons of sudden or progressive changes in the environment that adversely affect their lives or living conditions, are obliged to leave their habitual homes, or choose to do so, either temporarily or permanently, and who move within their country or abroad.” ( IOM, 2011: 33 in IOM, 2014:13).Three key terms are important in the context of migration and environmental and climatic changes: