Climate Refugees
by Vera NYGARD
Considerations for the Salvation Army:
- The increase of people fleeing their homes due to disasters hihglights the relevance of the BuildERS project that TSA is part of. Through the project TSA can contrubute to policy changes that seek to protect the most vulnerable in Europe
The EESC organised an event about environmental migration, with the aim of providing an understanding of the challenges at hand and their impact, as well as proposing policy solutions. It presented projections for climate change and how this will force people to migrate, and sought to define environmental displacement, paying attention to its current occurrence and providing estimates on its future. Emphasis was on the legal protection gap, as environmental refugees are currently not covered by any international law.
Carlos Trindade, President of the Study Group on Immigration and Integration (IMI) of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) opened the meeting and stressed that we are currently not sufficiently aware of the consequences of climate change for people and communities, and how it relates to movement of people. It creates migrants but also refugees, Trindade pointed out. Every speaker at the event has an academic background. “They can tell us what we can do to assist the decision makers and how we can improve our politicians’ knowledge of the situation.” Trindade explained. He highlighted that there is no actual legal term to describe this group of people, nor is there an international framework for climate refugees. He further questioned whether climate refugees is a good term to use.
The first panel discussed the estimates and realities of environmental displacement. It was moderated by Peter Schmidt, President of the EESC Sustainable Development Observatory, who first asked the audience how sustainable our societies and economies actually are. “We are not ready for the changes that come with climate change on an environmental nor on a societal level. This was forecasted for a long time but was always neglected.” Schmidt stressed. He underlined the importance of putting pressure on politicians to make sure they are prioritizing people’s wellbeing above all.
François Gemenne, Director, Hugo Observatory: Environment, Migration, Politics, University of Liège gave an insightful presentation on migration relating to climate change. He questioned the fact that it is often presented as a problem of the future, even though it is a current and present reality. In the political discourse around this issue, migrants are being used to highlight the risks of climate change. “Reduce emissions or you will have thousands of migrants knocking on your door”, tends to be the underlying message, said Gemenne. It is important that we consider the reality of migration instead of using it as rhetoric to highlight the risks of climate change.
On a yearly average, disasters displace two to three times more people than conflict and violence. Policy measures need to be tailored to different situations, there is no “one size fits all” approach that works. We often categorize people according to the motive behind their displacement, economic migrants or people displaced due to conflict. We should not conceptualize climate migrants as a third additional category, stressed Gemenne.
“What can be done?” asked Nina Birkeland, Senior Advisor on disaster displacement and climate change, Norwegian Refugee Council, and highlighted three crucial aspects. We need to start by helping people to stay, as this is what most people would choose if possible. Disaster risk reduction, resilience building and climate change adaption are important elements in this regard. We also need to protect them on the move, Birkeland said and pointed to facilitating regular migration pathways and planned relocation as solutions. Finally, we need to protect their rights whether they are internally displaced persons or cross-border displaced persons.
The Council of Europe has very recently mentioned climate refugees in a parliamentary assembly This recognition, alongside growing recognition on an international level, is important, and there needs to be a framework for these discussions in order to work towards legal recognition and creating policy.
We need an inventory of the legal framework and the definitions in relation to climate refugees. We also need to have zero tolerance towards migrants and refugees being used as pawns in a political game.
Tags: Europe