Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of people displaced by climate-related damage to the physical and social environment. These migrants are more exposed to climate-related environmental damage than others and more vulnerable to its social and health impacts because they possess fewer resources for mitigation and adaptation. Emerging artificial intelligence (AI) tools and approaches may help improve understanding of climate migration and immobility and support more timely, equitable interventions to reduce avoidable harm before, during, and after displacement. While AI systems have already been applied to climate modeling, disaster forecasting, and public health surveillance, their adaptation to the context of climate-induced displacement remains under-studied and unevenly implemented. Specific AI applications can address the lived realities and systemic vulnerabilities of climate migrants, such as anticipatory relocation, equitable health service provision, and sustainable infrastructure in host regions. However, we must first address certain issues such as the risk of fostering greater inequality through inherent biases in training data; developing public-private-academic collaboratives to collect and integrate high-resolution, localized and open-access datasets tailored to address disparities; prioritizing energy-efficient algorithms and hardware and balancing performance with environmental sustainability; and developing responsible models of AI governance that capture co-design and co-ownership of the design process with climate migration stakeholders including vulnerable and affected communities. We therefore call for empirical research to document the effectiveness of current and proposed initiatives to apply AI in supporting climate migration equity and overcoming methodological and operational limitations and implementation risks. By aligning technological innovation with human-centric values and global justice, AI may contribute to shifting climate mobility policy from crisis response toward resilience-building, if paired with rights-based governance and accountable implementation. While most applications remain pilot-based, context-specific, and unevenly evaluated, this article advances a structured framework to guide future empirical research and governance.
Institutions: University of California San Diego, Brunel University of London, United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment, and Health, Université de Lyon, École Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'État, Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique, University of Colorado Boulder, Imperial College London, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Southern California
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,890
OpenAlex ID: W7141938003