Climate change is a forceful driver of migration

Friday, 19 June 2009 06:44

Tomorrow, the 20th of June 2009, will be the 8th annual World Refugee Day. This year, with the world economic crisis threatening to slash aid budgets and amid enormous global uncertainty, it is essential to ensure that refugees are not forgotten. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has, therefore, chosen “Real People, Real Needs” as the theme for this year’s World Refugee Day. The aim of the theme is to highlight that of the millions of people forcibly displaced by conflict, persecution and natural disasters, every one has a story to tell: they are real people, just like you and me, and they have real needs.

Climate change is one of the main causes of natural disasters and it is already contributing to migration and displacement of millions of people. In the past, the issue of environmental migration has been put aside by governments and institutions due to its complexity, but now it has become too urgent to ignore. According to a recently published report “In Search of Shelter: Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Human Migration and Displacement”, there will be tens of millions migrants more within the next few years due to the effects of climate change.

The new report on climate change and migration was presented to the delegates and the international media at the Bonn Climate Change Talks. Two of the main authors of the report, Dr Warner and Dr Ehrhart, shared their alarming findings with the delegates underlining the importance for the issue of environmental migration to be included in the successive Kyoto Protocol. “The choice the international community has at this point is not whether to act, but when to act,” Dr Warner confirmed.

“The sad irony of the climate-induced migration issue is that those least responsible for climate change are the most affected,” Dr Ehrhart added. He further explained that people in least developed countries and island states would be affected first and worst by these changes. The authors later stressed to the media in Bonn that the international community must learn to understand the importance of effective adaptation to climate change.

The report provides information for decision-making. It offers a combination of empirical evidence, based on 23 case studies and interviews with 1,000 migrants and nearly as many non-migrants, with eight original maps and policy recommendations to clarify the subject. The report presents examples of people’s experiences with climate-induced displacement in particularly affected areas, ultimately giving the emerging issue a human face.

The “In Search of Shelter: Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Human Migration and Displacement” report was written as joined effort by the UN University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), CARE International, and Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). It was funded by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the World Bank.

Download the report “In Search of Shelter”.

Source: UNU-EHS, Care International press release