Global Challenges Relating to the Refugee Experience

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Original Editor - Arthur Desachy

Top Contributors - Naomi O'Reilly, Kim Jackson and Lucinda hampton  

Climate Migrants

With millions of people displaced, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted that human migration could be one of the greatest single impacts of climate change. Why do we talk about climate Migrants and not about Climate Refugees ? On one hand, refugee is clearly defined in the International Law as “a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country” (United Nations). In another hand, The International Organization for Migration defined climate migrants as “Environmental migrants are persons or groups of persons, who, for compelling reasons of sudden or progressive changes in the environment that adversely affect their lives or living conditions, are obliged to leave their habitual homes, or chose to do so, either temporarily or permanently, and who move either within their country or abroad”. There are multiple reasons why people need to move due to climate issues : temperatures, sea levels, accessibility to clean water or food, extreme weather events and many more. The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) noted that “80% of the world’s displaced people are in countries affected by acute food insecurity”. Every country is at risk of climate migrations, but egaly exposed. There is major risk for countries with a lack of capacity adaption when it comes to access to resources and for countries with higher exposure to hazardous events. In general, low and middle income countries are at higher risk. Climate migrations due to an environmental issue like sea level rise are rare. People are directly pushed to move due to climate only during extreme weather events. In other cases, there is on association between climate condition and social and economic issues. It is a long and subtle modification in people's lives. It’s hard to put a number on how many people are moving due to environmental conditions. The UNHRC has data about global migration and estimates 79.5 million people worldwide to be forcibly displaced in 2019, and estimated it around 21.5 million people each year since 2008 due to climate change. It is hard to evaluate how many people will be affected by climate change and how many will have to migrate due to environmental situations. The impact of climate change on forced migration will depend on “the quantity of future greenhouse gas emissions, the rate of future population growth and distribution, the meteorological evolution of climate change, the effectiveness of local and national adaptation strategies”. However, 200 million by 2050 is an accepted figure. Nevertheless it is important to realize that climate migrants are not always crossing borders. Actually it affects people inside their own countries before migration leads to another country. We talk about internal displacement.

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