By Sabine Minninger, Dr. Katherine Braun, and Christian Wolff
The Climate Action Summit on September 20, part of the UN General Assembly, will draw policymakers, academics and civil society from around the world to New York. That’s why ACT Alliance, Bread for the World and the Open Society Foundations are hosting the workshop Addressing the Protection Gap – Human Mobility and the Climate Crisis in International Frameworks in New York on September 19. It will raise awareness and encourage collaboration among a variety of stakeholders in the international community.
To meet the needs of people on the move, to protect climate-affected communities and individuals, and to ensure they can move with dignity, we must reimagine current frameworks and create new ones. Those who permanently lose their land or livelihoods should have access to alternative long-term solutions which include socioeconomic rights and preserve their cultural life.
People fleeing the effects of the climate crisis because their livelihoods are destroyed must be supported and protected, as must those who elect to stay. To address the current protection gap, international responsibilities must respond to the needs of both.
Climate (in-)justice
Global warming has led to more intense and frequent weather events around the world. Slow onset weather events such as sea level rise and desertification and sudden events such as droughts, tropical storms and hurricanes, heavy rainfall and floods disrupt the lives of millions. Most will not be able to move.
Industrialized nations and emerging economies with high levels of emissions are primarily responsible for the climate crisis. Although they have contributed the fewest emissions, the countries most affected by the impacts of climate change are the so-called least developed countries (LDCs).
Within them, those most affected are those groups that are already the most marginalized. They are constrained by their geographic location, but also by limited coping and adaptation capacities: the lack of financial, technological and technical resources, insufficient social protection systems and poor governance. Most will not be able to move. Those who can, lack sufficient international protection and regular pathways.
Human mobility and climate change
The Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), notes that 3.3 to 3.6 billion people worldwide live in environments vulnerable to climate change. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre estimates that since 2008, 288 million people have been displaced within their own country’s borders due to climate-related disasters. In 2020, 30.7 million people in 149 countries were displaced for this reason. An unknown number of people have had to leave their homes due to slow-onset processes such as drought or sea-level rise.
The worst impacts have yet to be felt. The IPCC Special Report “Global Warming of 1.5°C” notes that climate change will significantly speed up migration. By 2050 more than 140 million people will be threatened by drought, desertification, crop failure, storm surges and rising sea levels just in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. Under the most optimistic scenarios, slow-onset processes and extreme weather events will drastically impact the habitability of the most affected areas of the world.
The climate crisis amplifies and interacts with already existing threats and security risks, exacerbating humanitarian crises, social and political conflicts, economic insecurities and existing vulnerabilities, compelling more people to move.
What is human mobility in the context of climate change?
Human mobility in the context of climate change (HMCCC) includes internal displacement, seasonal and permanent cross-border migration and planned relocation.
The impacts of climate change can affect human mobility both directly and indirectly. Climate change can reinforce, decrease or redirect existing movements of people, often from rural to urban areas. It influences temporary and seasonal as well as permanent migration patterns.
Human mobility in the context of climate change (HMCCC) is determined by the nature of the hazard, and social, economic, political and demographic factors, among others. Women, children, LGBTQI,, the elderly, people with disabilities and members of ethnically and racially marginalized groups have the fewest resources to prepare for and protect against the impacts of climate change and disasters.
Tailored solutions are necessary to respond to the needs of affected populations, especially people living in vulnerable situations. They should not be left behind.
Human mobility can be an adaptation strategy, if….
Human mobility can be an adaptation and risk reduction strategy and may help reduce vulnerability, but only if human and social rights are protected and if movement is voluntary, safe, and orderly. This was confirmed in the Sixth IPCC Assessment Report on Vulnerability and Adaptation. The higher their freedom of mobility, the greater is the potential for individuals, their communities of origin, and host countries.
The protection gap
International protection and the freedom to move remain severely restricted. We are far from realizing the principle of “migration in dignity.” Climate migrants are not covered by the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention. The absence of regular pathways for migration forces people to take life-threatening migration routes and exposes them to human rights violations, labour exploitation and gender-based violence, and other threats.
Planned relocation processes are often accompanied by non-economic loss and damage and human rights violations, including to economic and cultural rights. Internal displacement is insufficiently addressed and lacks financial resources and institutional capacities.
Regular pathways for migration support coping strategies which protect lives and prepare communities for future losses and damages. Yet people who wish to stay should be able to.
It is the responsibility of the international community to protect people affected by the adverse effects of climate change, to assist with adaptation measures, and to address loss and damage to ensure all lives are lived with dignity.
A people-centred human rights- and equity-based approach
A large and rapidly increasing number of climate migrants and displaced people, and those at risk of displacement, must fend for themselves without protection to ensure their rights. HMCCC is also increasingly seen as a security risk. We are far from closing existing protection gaps for affected people.
A people-centred, human rights- and equity-based approach to “averting, minimizing and addressing displacement” requires policy frameworks that respond to the rights, needs and aspirations of people whose lives and livelihoods are directly affected by the impacts of climate change. This is especially the case when those impacts (combined with other stressors) make them particularly vulnerable.
This approach demands diverse, coherent policy approaches to ensure that people can stay in the face of a changing climate or can migrate freely and with dignity within or across borders.
HMCCC has been part of climate negotiations and UNFCCC mechanisms since the 2010 Cancun Agreement but is not yet sufficiently included in climate policy. There is far too little funding available, especially regarding cross-border migration, displacement and planned relocation as adaptation.
What is needed
To protect people threatened by climate-related displacement, states should ensure the full implementation of the Paris Agreement to keep global warming at 1.5°C and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet the UNFCCC goal. Human mobility should be more effectively included in UNFCCC processes by strengthening existing international initiatives and including HMCCC in workstreams on adaptation and Loss and Damage.
Climate finance should support action on displacement and migration. States should be supported by the UNFCCC in addressing HMCCC. The financial architecture must be improved to meet different needs, for example through differentiated, targeted funding streams.
Human mobility should be a pillar in proposals to international climate financing instruments, including adaptation scenarios. According to the polluter-pays-principle, and to implement climate justice, a needs-based Loss and Damage Fund should secure additional funding for mitigation, adaptation, Official Development Assistance (ODA) and humanitarian aid.
To address the rights and needs of people displaced by the climate crisis, cross-silo strategies in Climate Action, Disaster Risk Reduction, International Protection and Migration Policy are urgently needed. The effective participation of affected communities and civil society organizations is essential.
The protection gap for displaced persons and migrants affected by climate change must be effectively addressed in migration policy. Host countries of internally displaced persons need greater support. Where planned relocations are needed, planning must be inclusive and human rights must be respected.
States should improve migrant protection in situations of vulnerability by applying more predictable and human rights-based frameworks based on regular and legal pathways.
Additional protocols to protect climate-induced cross-border migration must meet international human rights obligations.
Industrialized countries should fulfil their commitments to dedicate 0.7% of their GNIs towards Official Development Assistance (ODA). Some can be dedicated to financing measures to address HMCCC. They must avoid conditionalities that link the provision of ODA to the establishment of restrictive border and migration policies. All financial support should favour grants over loans, particularly in interactions with LDCs and especially climate vulnerable countries and be accompanied by swift and effective debt relief for these countries.
Sabine Minninger is Senior Policy Advisor on Climate Change with ACT member Bread for the World. Dr. Katherine Braun is Migration Researcher and Policy Advisor for Refugee Affairs and Human Rights with the Church of Northern Germany. Christian Wolff is the ACT Alliance Policy Advisor on Migration and Refugees. They are co-authors of the ACT/Bread for the World study: Addressing the Protection Gap – Human Mobility and the Climate Crisis in International Frameworks, released in March 2023.
