Across the globe, the impacts of anthropogenic climate change will continue to influence and amplify human mobility. This report uses the term "human mobility" in preference to "migration" and others, in light of recent academic and policy discussions1 on the need for the environmental change–migration nexus "to become better attuned to the actual practice and needs of those affected, capturing the diversity of vulnerabilities, the different segments of agency and capabilities, and the contextualized patterns of environmentally–related migration."2

Early debates positioned climate–related mobility as a failure of in situ adaptation and a threat to national and human security. More recently, researchers, policymakers and affected communities have begun to identify alternative mobility futures where mobility can be a potential strategy to respond to climate risk with beneficial outcomes for adaptation and development,3 or where mobility is supported positively by incorporating adaptation and development policy and practice.4 There is now a clear need for policy, at a variety of scales, that incorporates the needs of people on the move and supports in situ adaptation for those who choose to stay.