Climate refugees
Climate refugees are individuals who migrate due to adverse effects of climate change, which can render their home environments uninhabitable. Unlike traditional refugees, who flee persecution as defined by the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, climate refugees often do not meet these legal criteria, instead falling under the broader category of displaced persons. Factors contributing to this forced migration include sea-level rise, climate-related natural disasters, and slow-onset disasters like drought and land degradation. The plight of climate refugees presents significant legal and humanitarian challenges, as many are left without formal recourse to aid and support.
As climate change accelerates, international organizations, such as the UN Refugee Agency, recognize the increasing number of people affected, with over 80 percent of refugees originating from climate-vulnerable countries. Current legal frameworks do not adequately protect internally displaced individuals or those fleeing nonviolent conditions, raising concerns about statelessness for populations from countries that may completely disappear due to rising sea levels. While predictions of future climate migration vary widely, it is widely accepted that developing nations will bear the brunt of these impacts. Strengthening legal and institutional frameworks, along with proactive adaptation measures, is crucial to address the complex issue of climate-related displacement and to support affected populations.
Subject Terms
Climate refugees
Definition
Humans have always migrated in response to climatic changes, and a rapid global climate change in the twenty-first century would be no exception. In some parts of the world, climate change may make the environment inhospitable or unsuitable for human habitation, leading to exodus of the affected populations.
People who migrate for climatic reasons are sometimes referred to as “climate refugees.” However, refugees, as defined by the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, are those who flee their home country under justified fear of persecution due to their religion, ethnicity, nationality, or social or political affiliation. Migrants fleeing the effects of climate change do not usually fit this definition. Rather, they fall into the broader category of displaced persons, those who migrate internally or internationally to escape intolerable conditions such as civil strife, economic collapse, or land degradation. Such movement is termed “forced migration.”
Climate change can cause forced migration in several different ways. Perhaps the most obvious is sea-level rise, which can obliterate homes, communities, and entire countries. Climate-related natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods can also necessitate permanent migration. “Slow disasters,” such as drought, desertification, deforestation, and glacier loss, may gradually render an area uninhabitable. Finally, violent conflict may arise from climate-induced resource scarcity.
Significance for Climate Change
International law confers refugee status only upon those who cross international borders to flee violent persecution. Climate “refugees” who are internally displaced, and those who are escaping nonviolent conditions, currently have no formal recourse to international aid. However, many countries and organizations have begun to acknowledge the need for a concerted response to climate-induced migration.
The UN Refugee Agency acknowledges that human-induced climate change is accelerating and causing disruptions to nature and people. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 80 percent of refugees and internally displaced people come from countries vulnerable to climate change. UNHCR humanitarian assistance to refugees impacted by climate change displacement remains in ambiguous legal territory and therefore is underfunded. According to the UNHCR, the top climate emergencies in 2022 included a drought in the horn of Africa, an earthquake in Afghanistan, monsoons in Bangladesh, and a bomb cyclone in Mozambique.
An impending problem with no legal precedent is the disappearance of an entire country due to sea-level rise, leaving the citizens of that country stateless. With projected rates of sea-level rise, several island states will lose their entire territory within the twenty-first century. One such country is Tuvalu, from which citizens have already begun evacuating. Although other countries have no legal obligation to accept Tuvaluan migrants, New Zealand has formally invited them since 2001 (at the rate of 75 per year). Australia has declined to enter into a similar agreement. Tuvalu Overview, a Japanese NGO, has sought to call attention to Tuvalu’s plight—and that of other small island states—by documenting the life of each of Tuvalu’s ten thousand citizens in photos and stories.
Other climate-related causes of human migration—such as floods, droughts, wildfires, storms, and land degradation—are even more ambiguous in their legal implications, since these events cannot be definitively attributed to climate change. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed concern about the impending problem of populations displaced by climate change, but its mandate does not extend to most of those populations. New legal and humanitarian arrangements may prove necessary. Since attribution of blame will often be difficult or impossible, the best solution may be voluntary aid from nations that have the resources to assist. Some steps have been taken by the UNHCR, however. In 2020, it issued an official legal guide to provide guidance on refugee status claims that include the effects of climate change. Furthermore, the Global Compact on Refugees, which was approved by the UN General Assembly in late 2018, included direct language about the growing concern of people who are displaced due to climate change and disasters.
The number of people likely to migrate because of climate change is highly uncertain. Predictions of such migration over the next century vary from a few tens of millions of people (mainly due to the direct effect of sea-level rise) to over a billion people (due to drought, crop failure, storms, conflict, and other indirect effects). More accurate estimates are needed to help institutions prepare for the likely consequences.
Despite the great uncertainties surrounding climate-related forced migration, there is a general consensus that developing countries will be the most negatively affected. This is due to their greater climatic vulnerability, their lower adaptive capacity, and the fact that they already host most of the world’s displaced persons and refugees. However, vigorous adaptation efforts may be able to prevent the most serious consequences of climate change and reduce the need for migration. There will still be instances of unavoidable migration, such as disappearance of a country below sea level, in which case strengthened institutional and legal frameworks will be needed to help resettle the affected population as promptly and equitably as possible.
Bibliography
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Podesta, John. "The Climate Crisis, Migration, and Refugees." The Brookings Institution, 25 July 2019, www.brookings.edu/research/the-climate-crisis-migration-and-refugees/. Accessed 27 Jan. 2022.
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United Nations High Commission for Refugees. “Climate Change, Natural Disasters and Human Displacement: A UNHCR Perspective.” Geneva, Switzerland: Author, 2008.
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