The first places to experience the most severe impacts of anthropogenic climate change have been those of extremes. Places of icebergs, islands and high altitudes. For island communities especially, many are not self-governing but rather subnational territories, remnants of a colonial past. They are made up of people who live remote from the governing majority and yet are extremely vulnerable to national policy decisions, especially when it comes to climate change and its impacts. Much has been written about the possible legal remedies available to people who are displaced by the impacts of climate change. But that scholarship considers two possible scenarios: either people cross international borders, or they are internally displaced. For people living in remote subnational communities, the displacement they face does not involve crossing an international border. At the same time, the concept of ‘internal’ displacement is misleading. This paper asks what legal avenues are available to communities that fall between the regulatory gaps?