Posted by Kayly Ober on April 18th, 2011 | 
(Spiegel) April 18, 2011 – It was a dramatic prediction that was widely picked up by the world’s media. In 2005, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations University declared that 50 million people could become environmental refugees by 2010, fleeing the effects of climate change.
But now the UN is distancing itself from the forecast: “It is not a UNEP prediction,” a UNEP spokesman told SPIEGEL ONLINE. The forecast has since been removed from UNEP’s website.
Official statistics show that the population in areas threatened by global warming is actually rising. The expected environmental disasters have yet to materialize.
In October 2005, UNU said: “Amid predictions that by 2010 the world will need to cope with as many as 50 million people escaping the effects of creeping environmental deterioration, United Nations University experts say the international community urgently needs to define, recognize and extend support to this new category of ‘refugee.
It added that “such problems as sea level rise, expanding deserts and catastrophic weather-induced flooding have already contributed to large permanent migrations and could eventually displace hundreds of millions.”
In 2008, Srgjan Kerim, president of the UN General Assembly, said it had been estimated that there would be between 50 million and 200 million environmental migrants by 2010. A UNEP web page showed a map of regions where people were likely to be displaced by the ravages of global warming. It has recently been taken offline but is still visible in a Google cache.
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Posted by Kayly Ober on April 11th, 2011 |
UNHCR organized an expert roundtable on climate change and displacement, which was held in Bellagio, Italy, from 22 to 25 February 2011, with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation.
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 »
Posted by Kayly Ober on April 2nd, 2011 |
Susan Chaplin, a senior research officer at the School of Public Health at La Trobe University, wrote a working paper on climate-related displacement in South Asia.
Her paper first provides an overview of the predicted ‘hot spots’ and key issues, along with a brief discussion of climate-induced displacement terminology. The second part examines the relevant existing social science literature on environmental degradation, natural disasters and displacement, and on
what triggers migration as an adaptation strategy for individuals, households, and communities. The third part highlights the gaps in social science research and provides a focus for the research that will be needed if we are to build up a comprehensive understanding of which populations may be displaced due to the impact of climatic changes.
Read the full paper here »
Posted by Kayly Ober on March 31st, 2011 |
March 31, 2011 – The International Organization for Migration released a publication on “Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation in IOM’s Response to Environmental Migration.” This document presents IOM’s engagement in building the
resilience of countries and communities affected by a changing climate, environmental hazards and structural factors of vulnerability in order to foster sustainable development while making migration a choice. It describes the migration perspective in: disaster risk management; disaster risk reductio; and climate change adaptation.
It also describes some activities ranging from humanitarian response to promoting migration for development in relation to: the complementarities between disaster risk management; disaster risk reductio; and climate change adaptation; climate proofing and climate-smart risk reduction; migration and development; increasing climate and risk resilience; capacity-building; cross-cutting issues such as
gender, health, human rights; and partnerships and advocacy.
Read the full report here »
Posted by Kayly Ober on March 31st, 2011 |
March 30, 2011 – A new coalition is launched today to address growing concerns about the effects of climate change on migration. The UK Climate Change & Migration Coalition (UKCCMC) brings together experts from across the refugee, human rights, environment, development and climate change sectors and aims to foster increased dialogue and cooperation on the crucial but complex issue of climate induced displacement and movement.
The new Coalition looks to give voice to people at risk of displacement and those displaced by environmental change. It sees its task as three-fold: to support action to avoid the worst effects of climate change; to support the right of people to move freely in response to climate change and to ensure that governments and public authorities support the security and welfare of those who do migrate. Steering forward this work are organisations including The Climate Outreach and Information Network (COIN), Praxis, The Migrant Rights Network, The Religious Society of Friends (The Quakers), The Environmental Justice Foundation and
The Evelyn Oldfield Unit.
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Posted by Kayly Ober on March 14th, 2011 |
Robert McLeman of the University of Ottawa and International Organization for Migration released a report entitled “Climate Change, Migration, and International Security Considerations.”
Executive Summary
The impacts of anthropogenic climate change are expected to lead to large-scale population displacements and migrations in the coming decades, with the potential to create instability and conflict in the most vulnerable regions. An oft-cited prediction by Myers (2002) suggests that climate change and other environmental factors could lead to 200 million people being displaced by mid-century; other estimates suggest that as many
as 1 billion people could be displaced. Such estimates are not based on statistical or empirical evidence, and it is arguable whether any population movements presently being observed are attributable to climatic change.
That said, climate-related conditions and events can and do stimulate population displacements and migrations. Scholars see migration as one of the many possible ways by which people adapt to the climate. Anthropogenic climate change is expected to increase the frequency and/or magnitude of many climatic events and conditions known to stimulate migration, with sea level rise posing new risks to coastal settlements and small island states. The first migration movements in the coming years that will be clearly attributable to climate change are likely to be movements of opportunity-seeking economic migrants into Northern regions as sea and land ice disappears.
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