Governments urged to confront effects of climate crisis on migrants

Jan 10, 2023 11:00 GMT

Extreme weather, according to experts, is an increasing hazard to those who have already been evacuated and may cause others to leave their homes.

                            

                                   Experts have warned that governments need to confront the connections between the global migration issue and the climate problem because more and more harsh weather is endangering already vulnerable displaced people and maybe driving more people to leave their homes.

More than 100 million migrants and internally displaced persons live in the world, primarily in poor nations, and they are among the groups most at danger from extreme weather.

However, nothing has been done to address the problem of migrants affected by climate breakdown or the possibility that more people will move due to increased weather extremes. Experts anticipate more attention in 2023 after the topic received little attention at the Cop27 UN climate meeting in Egypt late last year.

The International Rescue Committee's CEO, David Miliband, admitted: "We haven't worked together very well on this. This is especially harmful since, in regions of the world where there are conflicts, they [migrants and displaced persons] are the most defenceless individuals. These folks are among those who are most badly harmed while having contributed the least to the climate disaster.

In order to aid in recovery and reconstruction following extreme weather, governments at Cop27 decided that the poorest nations most affected by climate breakdown should get funding for "loss and damage." The new global fund's operational guidelines must be finalised this year, but experts told the Guardian that it must make some sort of provision for migration.

Conflict and climate change are undeniably some of the factors that influence the amount of refugees, according to Miliband. "Migration, including forced migration, is impacted by climate change in both direct and indirect ways. In most cases, it causes internal displacement and national migratory flows.

More people are escaping across borders than within their own nations, with an estimated 55 million people domestically displaced worldwide. According to the UN, the total number of individuals who were forcibly displaced worldwide last year—including refugees who crossed international borders—surpassed 100 million for the first time.

Miliband cautioned that developing nations required greater resources to defend themselves from the consequences of catastrophic weather and lessen the need for population emigration. He stated, "We must strengthen these nations' resilience."

However, he went on to say that alarmist reports of a fresh refugee catastrophe being brought on by climate change were exaggerated. The majority of "climate refugees," he continued, "are within [their own country's] borders. I don't go for this phrase." However, there is a connection between conflict and the environment since climate change amplifies and drives conflict.

The International Organization for Migration's deputy director general, Ugochi Daniels, also wants to see more attention paid to the connections between the climate catastrophe and displacement.

She remarked, "We at IOM are really delighted with the overall solidarity that Cop27 demonstrated. The inclusion of migrants in the preamble [to the agreement] represents a significant advancement in the understanding of the need of human mobility for effective adaptation [to the effects of extreme weather].

She commended the decision to establish a fresh loss and damage fund. "We view such improvements as crucial in the years to come, especially in vulnerable nations, to save lives and prevent the worst consequences of climate change."

According to current projections, a number of issues, including the climate catastrophe, would likely result in the displacement of more than 200 million people worldwide by 2030. Though the majority of them will probably remain inside their national boundaries, the impact will be significant.

It is important to acknowledge that the climate problem has a huge influence on human movement, according to Daniels.

She emphasised that the condition of women required more consideration. "Women and children are particularly impacted. Women frequently find themselves in precarious positions, having limited access to resources (such as money, land, education, or health), and frequently take on caregiving responsibilities or shoulder the weight of their family.

According to Andrew Harper, senior advisor on climate action at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wealthy nations must begin seriously considering the necessity of assisting poor countries in adapting to the effects of extreme weather, the repercussions of which are already clear. We now witness calamities on a regular basis, therefore ignorance is no longer an acceptable defence, he claimed. "Last year, one individual was uprooted every two seconds. When do we begin to take this seriously? When there are two persons per second?

The Horn of Africa saw catastrophic droughts that left up to 150 million people facing serious famine, while Pakistan experienced disastrous floods that left more than 20 million people dependent on humanitarian relief.

Extreme weather occurrences have been accelerated by climate change, according to Harper. "And as a result of these catastrophic weather occurrences, people are being displaced."