This two-day conference will bring together leading international experts, policymakers, and government officials from affected countries to discuss:

• Conceptualizing climate change-related movement
• The nature of movement: what does the evidence tell us?
• International legal frameworks
• International governance
• Adaptation and ‘migration with dignity’
• Relocation and land tenure
• Climate change migration and (human) security
• Institutional responses: where to from here?

Register online: http://www.gtcentre.unsw.edu.au/events/climate-change-and-migration-asia-pacific-legal-and-policy-responses

Cost: $150 for both days (including lunch, morning tea & afternoon tea).  Single day registration is not possible.

Contact: gtcentre@unsw.edu.au

Speakers:

• Mr Marius Enthoven – Chairman, Alliance for UPEACE
• Mr Rolain Borel – Head, Department of Environment, Peace and Security, University of Peace (UPEACE), Costa Rica
• Mr Muniruzzaman, Major General (ret) – President, Bangladesh Institute for Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS), Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Mr Tamer Afifi – Associate Academic Officer, United Nations University, Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), Bonn, Germany

Panel, chaired by Mr Wouter Veening (Institute for Environmental Security):

• Ms Thanh-Dam Truong – Associate Professor of Women, Gender and Development, ISS, The Netherlands
• Ms Michele Nori – Programme Officer, EuropeAID European Commission, Belgium
• Mr Maarten Kappelle – Chief Conservation Officer for Biodiversity, WWF Netherlands, The Netherlands

Introductions by:

• Mr Joost van der Aalst – Chief of Mission, International Organisation for Migration, The Hague, The Netherlands
• Mr Wybe Douma – Senior Researcher, T.M. Asser Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands

A panel of experts with field experience will illustrate practical problems and solutions related to water availability and the protection against droughts and floods.

Click here for more information.

Manila, Philippines, 14 – 16 September 2011

Asia and the Pacific will be amongst the global regions most affected by the impacts of climate change. Countries of the region are particularly vulnerable because of a high degree of exposure to environmental risks and large population. In recent years, Asia and the Pacific has undergone massive and rapid socioeconomic transformation.

Migration within countries, especially from rural to urban areas, has become significant. Countries and populations of Asia and the Pacific will be affected by climate change in different ways, leading to various migration scenarios. Cross-border migration is likely to increase. Already, the region is home to the most important source of international migrants worldwide.

In 2010, more than 30 million people in Asia and the Pacific were displaced by environmental disasters, such as storms and floods. Many returned home, but others did not. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency of extreme weather events, and over time induce significant sea-level rise. At the same time, the region’s population, now around 4 billion, continues to increase. These developments will result in growing numbers of people on the move for reasons that include environmental factors.

ADB Events

In September 2010, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched a technical assistance project to develop policy recommendations to address climate-induced migration in Asia and the Pacific. The project is also considering options to finance actions related to climate-induced migration. This unique project aims to stimulate thinking and action by concerned stakeholders and decision-makers on the local, national, regional, and global levels.

On 14 September 2011, ADB will organize a full-day workshop for researchers of environmental displacement and climate-induced migration in Asia and the Pacific. The workshop will bring together individuals exploring these phenomena in several countries in the region. The aim is to share research findings, compare approaches and methodologies, exchange contacts and references, and forge a new professional network. The workshop is expected to bring together researchers from the whole Asia-Pacific region and others interested in their work.

Then, on 15-16 September 2011, ADB will host a one and a half day regional conference to present its initial policy recommendations for addressing migration associated with current environmental events and predicted environmental changes. The conference will assemble leading experts and decision makers from different disciplines. Representatives of governments, inter-governmental organizations, development agencies, NGOs, the private sector, and academe are expected to participate in the event, including researchers who attended the earlier workshop.

These events are likely to be the largest-ever gathering of researchers of environmental displacement and climate-induced migration in the world’s largest and most populous region. The Honorable Mohamed Aslam, Minister of Housing, Transport and Environment, Maldives, will deliver the keynote address at the regional conference. Among the research institutions and international agencies participating in the program will be the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, ICHIMOD, IDDRI, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, International Labour Organization, International Organization for Migration, PIK, Swedish Environmental Institute, UNHCR, and the UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security.

The events will raise awareness of the environment as a driver of migration, opportunities to use migration as a tool of adaptation to climate change, and the need for governments and international agencies to act now to reduce human vulnerability and risk associated with environmental displacement.

If you would like to attend these events, contact Ms. Chet Japson at email mcjapson.consultant@adb.org; telephone +632 632-4444; or fax +632 636 2409.

This was not the first such catastrophe: Majuro has grown used to battling a major tidal event every decade or so. However, as global carbon emissions continue to increase, sea levels rise and tropical weather events become more numerous and intense, these events will become ever more common. The Marshallese people can respond to such crises every few years, but they cannot respond every few months, and it is possible (indeed probable) that life as they know it will become untenable by the end of the century. This fact raises serious questions about the continued viability of these nations, as well as protections for individuals who may need to relocate.

In late May this year, legal and policy experts from around the world gathered at Columbia Law School to address these and other questions arising from the impacts of global climate change – particularly rising sea levels – on small-island nations.

Speaking at the event, panelist Mary Elena Carr, associate director of the Columbia Climate Center, highlighted the scientific consensus: that, without any remediating activity, the Marshall Islands and other low-lying island nations around the world could become uninhabitable in a matter of decades, a serious security risk which can no longer be ignored. Sea-level rise will be particularly acute in the Pacific and other island regions, where increased intensity and severity of weather patterns, including so-called “king tide” and “el niño” events, may overwhelm domestic infrastructure and water supplies, as well as local ecosystems.

To underscore the severity of this issue and the importance of adaptation generally, Carr warned that, even if everybody stopped emitting greenhouse gases now “we will still have warming for over 1000 years…[and] just from the warming of water, we will still have one metre of sea-level rise by 2100.”

This raises a fundamental question: what happens to the nations themselves if their islands become uninhabitable? On this point, Jenny Grote-Stoutenburg, visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, argued that “the international law of statehood is characterised by a tension between the principle of effectiveness [asking whether a state has a territory, population, government and independence] and another competing principle, the principle of legality…[which holds that] the extinction of states must not violate some fundamental norms of international legal order, called jus cogens norms.”

In other words, it is highly possible that some traditional requirements for statehood – permanent territory and population – may no longer be met by some of these countries, but that other nations will continue to recognise them for equitable reasons (and in fact may be legally obligated to do so), meaning the indices of statehood can likely be preserved. This might most effectively happen via some ex-situ arrangement, as outlined by University of Hawaii academic Maxine Burkett, whereby country representatives would manage and distribute national resources to a scattered population.

The extent of these resources depends heavily on nations’ ability to continue to access marine territories, which provide critical fishing and mineral rights. As currently set by the Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC), Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) – waters over which a state has special rights for exploration and resource-use – extend 200 nautical miles (just over 370 kilometres) from a nation’s low-tide mark. However, the convention is not clear regarding permanent boundaries, and so traditionally EEZs would recede along with the coast if sea levels rose.

Of more concern to small-island nations, substantial marine territory – as much as 40,000 square nautical miles (137,000 square kilometres) – could be threatened by the abandonment of a single island, because the LOSC clearly disallows marine territory for uninhabitable rocks. In response to this, David Freestone of The George Washington University notes that precedent elsewhere would support artificially bulwarking islands to preserve existing claims – most (in)famously, Japan has bolsteredOkinotorishma Island from a rock to a full base that serves as a basis for territorial expansion to the south. Although this has been repeatedly challenged by other nations, for equitable reasons they would be less likely to object to similar bulwarking by small-island nations.

If certain small-island nations become uninhabitable, their populations will have to move somewhere, but it remains unclear where they would go. Unfortunately, the patchwork of international protections for displaced peoples will not provide extensive guidance: refugee law as defined by the1951 Convention on Refugees probably would not apply to climate migrants (although subsequent clarifying agreements applying to Africa and the Americas might); and there is no international obligation for any particular country to take in such migrants. Similarly, protections in the United States and Europe for victims of environmental disasters are temporary, and leave no path to full residency.

In response, as New York University law professor Katrina Wyman has discussed, the best option for individual nations may be to rely on existing agreements and relationships with potential destination countries that allow migration for other reasons or purposes. Domestic immigration laws in certain countries may also be used.

Options also exist in international institutions to provide more aid and support to climate-displaced peoples. Traditional institutions that could be integral to this effort include the International Organization for Migrationand the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) may also be of potential use in organising resettlement activities. This is particularly true following last year’s climate negotiations in Cancún, which recognised the importance of “measures to enhance understanding, coordination and cooperation with regard to climate change induced displacement…at national, regional and international levels”. As Australian lawyer Ilona Millar suggested, the UNFCCC could perhaps be used to harness private-sector funding and insurance protection for vulnerable parties.

If people are forced to resettle, many have argued that they should be able to recover damages in court for harms received. However, the authority for such litigation remains unclear. Substantively, there are several possible bases for establishing a violation of international law, including breach of treaty claims under the UNFCCC, the human right of self-determination, the duty under the World Heritage Convention to “natural and cultural heritage” and theories in tort and certain other areas of the law. One particularly interesting possibility, as described by Dean Bialek, would to be to base a claim on ocean acidification, which could kill off tropical coral species, deplete fish reserves and potentially further undermine the physical stability of coral atolls.

A more difficult question is: which courts could hear such claims and enforce remedies, if such remedies are possible? The International Court of Justiceis the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, but has only limited powers. Certain treaties, including the UNFCCC, offer similarly advisory commissions which could perhaps hear such cases. Access to domestic courts in key major emitters is also uncertain; the United States, especially in recent caselaw, famously makes it difficult for foreigners to gain access to US Courts under the Alien Tort Claims Act.

However, at least one lawsuit initiated by the Federated States of Micronesia has had success fighting carbon emissions in Czech Republic courts, by challenging an environmental-impact assessment for a proposed coal-fired power plant on the grounds it failed to adequately account for transboundary (read: climate) impacts. The success of this case was largely based on Czech provisions that allow foreigners access to domestic courts, but similar provisions are being scouted out elsewhere in Europe and around the world, and may provide further options for establishing jurisdiction.

If resettlement becomes unavoidable, then that process must be organised. As Brad Blitz from UK-based Kingston University has emphasised, preparations should be made far in advance of any actual movement, and should focus on preserving both physical and financial security, and cultural norms. Basic housing and life-supporting infrastructure must be planned.

Equally important, the political relationships between displaced nationals and host states would need to be resolved, addressing communities’ relationship with host nations as well as their involvement in the planning process. The experience of Alaskan villagers’ resettlement in Newtok, where community leaders have successfully led the relocation process, as contrasted with less successful relocations of island populations in Chagosand elsewhere, suggests that community involvement is critical for the success of any relocation activity. This involvement is important largely because new communities must do more than provide housing; they should be structured to promote livelihoods and preserve critical familial and community bonds; and community leaders are best placed to structure their resettlement process accordingly.

To get ready for this changing world, small-island governments need to update existing institutions to prepare administratively for sea-level rise and possible relocation. At May’s conference, Justin Rose gave a summary of programmes under way to prepare island communities, including adaptation projects (such as planting and building defenses against saltwater inundation), educational schemes and more direct sets of incentives for good long-term planning. More of this should be done. In addition to community development, states will need to address property systems to account for changing landscapes, develop new budget priorities, establish targeted insurance regimes to allow for individual recovery and, above all, educate their populations in preparation for possible future resettlement.

However, at heart this is a global problem, and the burden to resolve these issues falls squarely on the world’s largest emitters. Through no fault of their own, entire civilisations could soon be lost to the ocean. These civilisations must attempt to ease the pain of any transition through legal innovations and active planning – but they will need help. And it is our moral duty as a society to help them prepare for the world to come.

Source: chinadialogue

This conference will focus on vulnerability, resilience and capacity for adaptation of communities in areas that are prone to disaster due to climate change, the protection of displaced people, and promotion of action to help prevent or manage displacement. The conference also aims to provide up-to-date projections with regard to drivers of displacement such as drought, floods, storms and sea-level rise.

Click here for the conference website.

Click here for the preliminary program.

Main messages to come out of the event included:

• Displacement is likely to be a significant consequence of global climate change processes of both a rapid and slow-onset nature, but there is a need for better understanding and research of these processes as well as the impacts and scale of displacement related to climate change.
• Responses to climate-related displacement need to be guided by the fundamental principles of humanity, human dignity, human rights and international cooperation. They need furthermore to be guided by consent, empowerment, participation and partnership and to reflect age, gender and diversity aspects.
• While the 1951 Convention and some regional refugee instruments provide answers to certain cases of external displacement related to climate change, and these ought to be analyzed further, they are limited.
• The terms of “climate refugee” and “environmental refugee” should be avoided as they are inaccurate and misleading.
• There is a need to develop a global guiding framework or instrument to apply to situations of external displacement other than those covered by the 1951 Convention, especially displacement resulting from sudden-onset disasters. States, together with UNHCR and other international organizations, are encouraged to explore this further. Consideration would need to be given to whether any such framework or instrument ought also to cover other contemporary forms of external displacement.
• The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, as a reflection of existing to situations of internal displacement caused by climate-related processes. Thus, there is no need for a new set of principles in relation to internal displacement in the context of climate change.
• Although designed to address internal displacement, the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement contain a number of principles that may be applicable in external displacement situations. In addition, there are other relevant standards – for example, those developed in response to mass influx of refugees – which could be considered.
• Climate-related displacement – both internal and external – is likely to take different forms and to require diverse responses at national, sub-regional, regional and international levels to address the specificities of different situations, guided by basic universal principles.
• National legislation, policies and institutions are central to developing appropriate responses to both the internal and external dimensions of climate-related displacement.
• Pre-existing regional and sub-regional governance forums and arrangements, including mechanisms promoting free movement, could be explored further to determine the extent to which they apply to climate-related displacement and migration.
• In relation to small island and/or low-lying coastal states, the legal presumption of continuity of statehood needs to be emphasized and the notion and language that such states will “disappear” (i.e., lose their international legal personality) or “sink” ought to be avoided.
• Migration is widely acknowledged as a rational adaptation strategy to climate change processes and needs to be supported as such.
• Given the magnitude of the issues involved, there is a need for a collaborative approach based on principles of international cooperation and burden- and responsibility-sharing. UNHCR’s expertise on the protection dimensions of displacement makes it a particularly valuable actor.

Read the full summary here »

(ADB.org) Climate-induced migration is receiving more and more attention. In the past year alone, millions of people in Asia and Australia have been displaced by severe weather events linked to climate change, some temporarily and others permanently, giving an indication of what is to come as extreme weather events grow in number.

The new face of climate change has become vulnerable people confronted with the daunting task of either struggling to make a living in an area where disaster is almost certain to strike again, or seeking a new life in uncertain conditions, such as mega cities already struggling to cope with rising population.

You are invited to join a live online chat with two climate change specialists on Wednesday, 9 February 2011, 15.00 Manila/Beijing time (14.00 in Jakarta, 12.30 in Delhi) to discuss key issues shaping the climate-induced migration debate. Please register for the online discussion 20 minutes before the event. The webchat panel will provide deeper insight into issues that will shape this important public policy challenge.

Robert Dobias, Head of ADB’s Climate Change Program Coordination Unit, and François Gemenne, Research Fellow at the Paris-based Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), will answer your questions on climate change and migration.

Click here for more information about the live online discusson »

IOM has also released an associated background paper on Climate Change and International Migration. It is one of 19 background papers which have been prepared for the World Migration Report.

This year, the World Youth Report 2010 focuses on youth and climate change, and is intended to highlight the important role young people play in addressing climate change. It features a chapter on migration and is worth having a look.

Dr. Jane McAdam has published an article in the forthcoming (2011) 23(1) International Journal of Refugee Law entitled “Swimming Against the Tide: Why a Climate Change Displacement Treaty is Not the Answer”. Drawing on field work in Tuvalu, Kiribati and Bangladesh, Dr Jane McAdam will argue that advocacy for a new treaty addressing climate-related movement is misplaced for a number of reasons. Click here for the abstract and to read the entire article. Jane McAdam has also written an article for the Syndey Morning Herald titled “Number of climate refugees overstated”.

Finally, Reuters AlertNet has published a news article “Destitute climate migrants seen heaping pressure on neighbours”.

Below are some pictures from COP16 including the side event “Climate Change, Environment and Migration Alliance (CCEMA): understanding impacts and finding solutions”. This event was well attended, and covered issues such as migration as adaptation and rapid urbanization due to environmental migration.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference starts tomorrow in Cancun and runs for two weeks. I am travelling right now where internet is limited so I will try my best keep the blog updated. I will be in Cancun during the second week to attend and cover a few of the related meetings. Below are some of the migration and displacement side events happening at COP16. If you know of any other events please contact me and I will add them to this post.

Displacement and migration: Examples of initiatives and activities to support resilience and adaptation
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
Tuesday, November 30 – 18:30—20:00
This event will focus on national and sub-national level policy and programme implementation, including assistance in the development of policies on displacement and climate change; advocacy on displacement; and dissemination of tools that specifically target vulnerable communities such as refugees, internally displaced persons and migrants.

Climate change and forced migration (organized with Bread for the World and UNU)
Stockholm Environemntal Istitiute/IIED/IISD
Part of the “Development and Climate Days at COP-16″
Sunday, December 5 – Day Two – 1:30 pm – 3pm. By RSVP only.
- Chair: Koko Warner, UNU
- Ferdausur Rahman, Network on Climate Change in Bangladesh (NCCB)
- Peter Emberson, the Pacific Conference of Churches
- Isabel Cruz Hernández, Mexican Association of Credit Unions from the Social Sector
- Resettlement needs in Papua New Guinea, Sophia Wirshing, Bread for the World
- Africa presentation tbc

Rights for climate induced forced migrants : Responsibility of international community
Coastal Association for Social Transformation Trust (COAST Trust)
Monday, December 6 -16:45—18:15
There will be 2 billion displaced people due to climate induced problems, alone in Bangladesh these figure will be 30 millions by the year 2010, they should have rights to life and livelihood in view different UN convenants.

Climate Change, Environment and Migration Alliance (CCEMA): understanding impacts and finding solutions
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Wednesday, December 8 – 15:00—16:30
IOM, UNU and other CCEMA partners highlight key questions and challenges for migration and displacement. Delegates and experts discuss proactive approaches for policy and practice in the context of climate change and adaptation, with relevant case studies.

This year, World Humanitarian Day comes at a time when the international humanitarian community has been called upon to assist the countless number of people affected by the devastating floods in Pakistan, which some are calling the worst humanitarian disaster in recent history.

Below is The 2010 World Humanitarian Day project. It is a collaborative film shot in over 40 countries in under 9 weeks, on a shoestring budget – with the goal of showing the enormous diversity of places, faces and endeavors of humanitarian aid workers in 2010. It was filmed by humanitarian staff and freelance filmmakers from around the globe (over 50 contributors in total) with all time donated.