People On The Move In A Time Of Climate Crisis - A Europe Must Act Report
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Climate change or climate crisis refers to long-term shifts in weather patterns and temperatures and can be driven by natural causes or human activities. Climate scientists showed that since the 1800s human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels have been a force behind climate change and rising global temperatures. While severe effects of the climate crisis are felt continuously more- one of these being disaster displacement- there is an increased concern among researchers, policymakers, and the general public with regard to the link between human mobility, forced migration and climate change.
Since 2020, there has been an annual increase in the total number of displaced people due to climate disasters compared with the previous decade and in 2023 alone, 7.7 million people were living in internal displacement because of such calamities.
Although not all natural catastrophes might be climate-related, climate change impacts the likelihood of extreme weather events making them more frequent and intense. Therefore, people are expected to be forced to migrate increasingly as a consequence of climate-induced hazards. In fact, the Institute for Economics and Peace estimates that around 1.2 billion people could be displaced by 2050 due to climate crisis.
UNHCR reveals that the majority of people affected by climate-induced displacement move within the boundaries of their countries. However, climate change-related disasters force people to move across borders as well. The lack of protection rights for those displaced by environmental factors is a key issue in the context of climate migration, due to the absence of a legal framework for “climate refugees”.
Even though “climate refugee” is a phrase often used colloquially to refer to persons forced into climate migration, there is no legal definition for those in international law, as the 1951 Refugee Convention does not cover the concept. Therefore, people who migrate forcibly in this context are not able to apply for asylum under the Convention on the basis of climate-related hazards, and states are not obliged legally to provide protection as well as grant entry onto their soil.
In spite of this gap in international law, some regional refugee laws might provide protection. Both in the 1984 Cartagena Declaration and in the 1969 Organization of African Unity Convention, a refugee is defined as someone who fled their country as a result of “events seriously disturbing public order”; climate change-related disasters might be interpreted as such events.
While climate impacts populations globally and affects all regions around the world, it often hits harder on those who contribute least to it. According to the World Inequality Database, North America and Europe are responsible for around half of all carbon emissions since the Industrial Revolution. Nonetheless, low-income countries in the global south bear the brunt of climate change, considering that the communities living there have fewer resources to respond and adapt to its adverse effects.
Besides these inequalities between geopolitical regions, climate change is likewise interconnected with social discrimination within a country. Even in the richest countries, natural catastrophes affect the poorest and the marginalised the most, as they lack the resources to recover from their aftermath.
Here, we examine the dynamics of climate-related displacement in diverse cases and, finally, explore how climate crises can disproportionately impact populations already displaced, compounding their vulnerabilities.
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