This report identifies eight critical challenges in addressing climate-related mobility, along with SEI’s contributions to advancing effective solutions:

1. Conflict, environment and displacement: Simplistic narratives linking climate change to conflict can result in restrictive policies that harm vulnerable populations. Reframing these narratives, this report highlights the need for inclusive governance, peacebuilding and attention to structural vulnerabilities
2. Migration as adaptation: While migration can enhance resilience, it often risks being instrumentalized for economic gains without adequate protections. Addressing this requires rights-based frameworks that safeguard migrants and challenge systemic inequities.
3. Power, intersectionality and decoloniality: Unequal power structures and intersecting social inequalities exacerbate mobility challenges. Advancing justice requires addressing inequities and recognizing the legacies of colonialism in shaping current patterns of mobility and immobility.
4. Natural resource management and mobility: Inequitable governance of natural resources, compounded by land grabs and large-scale development projects, heightens displacement risks for marginalized communities. Safeguarding rights through inclusive governance is crucial.
5. Slow-onset events: Gradual environmental changes, like sea-level rise and desertification, profoundly reshape mobility patterns yet remain under-addressed in policy. These require targeted responses that consider immobility and long-term adaptation.
6. Climate-resilient cities: Rapid urbanization, combined with inadequate infrastructure, heightens risks for rural-to-urban migrants. Inclusive urban planning can integrate migration into strategies for building resilient cities.
7. Intergenerational impacts: Migration disrupts family dynamics, with particular burdens on children, youth and caregivers. Equitable policies must support both those who migrate and those left behind.
8. Modelling mobility hotspots: Current projections often oversimplify the drivers of mobility, failing to capture the nuanced decision-making processes that shape migration. Improved tools and data are needed for equitable and responsive policy development.

Addressing these challenges requires bold, interdisciplinary approaches that bridge global research with local realities. This report also identifies three interconnected priority areas where SEI’s work can provide key research insights for climate mobility solutions:

1. Transboundary climate impacts: SEI examines cascading risks that cross borders and sectors, integrating human mobility into regional and global governance frameworks. SEI’s participation in initiatives like Adaptation Without Borders demonstrates its leadership in addressing shared risks while promoting cooperation and sustainability.
2. Comparative, grounded research and shifting power: SEI’s work bridges global narratives with local realities. Projects like HABITABLE help to amplify marginalized voices and foster justice principles, ensuring that research and policymaking are rooted in inclusivity, equity and actionable insights.
3. Strengthened global cooperation for sustainable livelihoods: SEI aligns migration with opportunities in green transitions, advocating for rights-based frameworks that prioritize decent work and sustainable development. Tools like AidAtlas and Trase can enhance transparency and inform equitable governance.