The scale
In 2022, 32.6 million new internal displacement events were triggered by natural disasters, the majority climate-related. Slower-onset processes — desertification, saltwater intrusion into agricultural land, declining water availability — are creating conditions in which existing livelihoods become impossible and populations are forced to move.
Where it is happening
Climate displacement is concentrated in the world's most vulnerable regions: the Sahel and Horn of Africa, low-lying coastal nations in South and Southeast Asia, small island states in the Pacific and Indian Ocean facing sea level rise, and drought-affected parts of Central America.
Why it is mostly internal
Cross-border migration makes headlines; internal migration is the more prevalent reality. People move from rural areas to cities within the same country first. It is only when those urban destinations cannot absorb the displaced that cross-border movement becomes the dominant pattern.
The legal gap
The 1951 Refugee Convention recognises people fleeing persecution as protected refugees. Climate displacement does not currently meet this threshold. Various legal proposals seek to address this gap, but no binding international framework yet recognises climate displacement.