The Need for International Protections of Environmental Migrants

By Gina María Zuno Aguilar

“The world is reaching the tipping point beyond which climate change may become irreversible. If this happens, we risk denying present and future generations the right to a healthy and sustainable planet - the whole of humanity stands to lose”

- Kofi Annan, 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations

To understand who environmental migrants are and how they came to be, it is crucial that we understand what climate change is and is not, and the consequences of climate change. There are many academic definitions for climate change, but I will focus on the international definition found in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is an entity tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change.  

The UNFCCC has near-universal membership, with 197 members (UNFCCC, 2020), it is also the parent treaty of the Paris Agreement of 2015 which purpose is to combat climate change and adapt to its effects (UNFCCC, 2020). The UNFCCC defines climate change as “…a change in the physical environment or biota resulting from climate change which have significant deleterious effects on the composition, resilience or productivity of natural and managed ecosystems or on the operation of socio-economic systems or on human health and welfare.” (1992).

Over time, many scholars and international institutions and organizations have defined climate change differently; however, even with the variety of definitions and debates around the concept, there is a global consensus that climate change is a “long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth’s local, regional and global climates.” (NASA, 2020).

It has been a long process of negotiations, research and debate between scientists and politicians, but the concept has been accepted worldwide, and within those debates and negotiations a topic of discussion has been the specific effects or consequences that climate change will have and is currently having on the Earth.

 The Consequences of Climate Change

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) climate change impacts human lives and health in a variety of ways, it threatens clean air, safe drinking water, food supply, safe shelter, among many others (2020). Researchers at NASA have found that the changes observed in the Earth’s climate since the early 20th century have been driven by human activities such as fossil fuel burning, which causes an increase in the emission of greenhouse gas levels thus raising the level of the Earth’s average temperature (2020).  

Climate data records provide us with evidence of key indicators of climate change: rising sea levels, global land and ocean temperature increases, shrinking ice sheets, glacial retreat, decreased snow cover, declining arctic sea ice, and severe changes in extreme weather such as hurricanes, heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, floods and precipitation, and ocean acidification (NASA, 2020). Since the late 1970s, climate change has been a topic of discussion in the international community. In fact, there have been multiple negotiations, treaties, protocols and conventions to eradicate or reduce the consequences of climate change (a brief timeline can be found at the end of the article).  

Although much of the discussions in the international agenda has focused on the effects of climate change – how it can be reduced and its overall impact on people – there is little to no mention of how people are being forced to adapt due to climate change. One adaptation strategy, in particular, has been migration. There is considerable academic research on human migration and security, yet there is little scholarship on environmental migration as a consequence of climate change.  

Environmental Migrants 

Climate change has caused people to adapt to their new reality in response to the Earth’s change in weather patterns and global temperature. Mobility and migration, as an adaption strategy, is understood as a “response to sudden events and slow-onset environmental degradation…” (Bettini and Gioli, 2015). With this acceptance of mobility as adaptation, there has been widespread research on environmental migration as an effect or consequence of climate change. In the academic research on mobility as adaptation, there is a wide range of concepts used to define environmental migrants, such as climate refugees, environmental refugees, environmental migration and displacement, or climate migrants, but for the purpose of this article, only environmental migrants will be used. 

One of the most cited definitions was created in 1985 by Hassam El-Hinnawi commissioned by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), who defines environmental refugees as: “…people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of a marked environmental disruption (natural and/or triggered by people) that jeopardized their existence and/or seriously affected the quality of their life” (Gemenne, 2011). It wasn’t until the emergence of the UNFCCC and the attention given to climate change impacts in the Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that social scientists, legal scholars, and some politicians, began paying attention to migration as a consequence of climate change (McLeman and Gemmene, 2018). With this new interest, some international organizations started to pay attention to the problem.  

One of the definitions found in the international arena is from the Organization for Migration, an inter-governmental organization specialized in migration, which defined environmental migrants in 2007 as: “persons or groups of persons who, for compelling reasons of sudden or progressive changes in the environment that adversely affect their lives or living conditions, are obliged to leave their homes or choose to do so, either temporarily or permanently, and who move either within their country or abroad.” The definition is broad to account for all the different types of population movements due to the different types of environmental drivers. It shows how complex environmental migration is and focuses on the lived experience of the individual.  

Much of the efforts made to try and define environmental migrants have come from international environmental and humanitarian policy arenas, which have tried to define, categorize and find solutions to the problem (Ransan-Cooper et al., 2015). There are four framings of environmental migrants that have emerged in the environmental policy sphere: 1) environmental migrants as victims, 2) security threats, 3) adaptive agents, or 4) as political subjects.  

They are seen as victims primarily by NGOs, the media, researchers and governments when they are documenting the problem. However, this has created a vision of a saviour through foreign donor financial assistance (Ransan-Cooper et al., 2015). Environmental migrants are presented as a security threat to the Global North in relation to the Global South. This was established through the agendas of military interventions, development, and modernization (Ransan-Cooper et al., 2015). The third framing is centred around environmental migrants as adaptive agents where the thesis resides on the recognition of migrant’s economic agency (Ibid.). And lastly, as political subjects where environmental migrants focus on access to and control of resources, self-determination, and empowerment in issues of inequality, marginalization, and injustice (Ibid.). 

This framing has helped scholars, policymakers and humanitarian academics to push the problem to the international agenda, with the objective to create an international framework that protects and assists environmental migrants. 

Existing Regulation and Policy Responses 

Even with the varied efforts made by scholars and international organizations to define and create a policy framework on the matter of environmental migrants, there is still no legal definition. This has created a lack of understanding of the problem and a lack of international regulation, leaving environmental migrants in legal limbo with no real help or protection creating a problem of statelessness. 

The UNFCCC has expressed the need to address climate change displacement and the UN Security Council has warned the possibility of mass migration caused by climate change (Boas et al., 2019). Further, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has recognized the seriousness of climate change consequences and effects which include movement of people (UNHCR, 2020). The UNHCR has taken on the role of providing protection and assistance to all those who had to migrate because of the effects of climate change (UNHCR, 2020).  

During COP-16 in 2010, it recognized the importance to understand and cooperate on the subject of migration because of climate change. Since then, a number of academic scholars have suggested that the existing treaties and institutions of climate change are sufficient to combat environmental migration (Leal-Arcas, 2012).

In 2018, the UN General Assembly adopted the Global Compact on Refugees, which recognizes that “climate, environmental degradation and natural disasters increasingly interact with the drivers of refugee movements” (UNHCR, 2020), but this Compact is not focused on environmental migrants, only mentioned and recognized. This is one of the few international documents that recognize environmental migrants as a consequence of climate change, but this document is not binding, and in it, the parties only recognize their responsibility to help migrants and refugees without firm commitments. 

There has been some debate on whether or not existing international and national laws can protect environmental migrants. Some scholars debate whether or not the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees can be applied to environmental migrants, but because the definition of refugees doesn’t account for climate change and its consequences, this is not a viable option (Leal-Arcas, 2012). Other scholars and policy analysts have debated whether or not existing national laws can protect environmental migrants under other categories, depending on their national laws. Current laws mention that if climate change causes internal migration, then the nation-state to which they belong is responsible for them, and international law maintains that in those cases the countries must follow international human rights laws to protect them and assure their rights (Leal-Arcas, 2012).  

But this line of the debate brings forth other problems: if they are migrating because of climate change, why should they be put under another category to be protected?

Based upon the analysis of existing national and international laws on environmental migration, we can surmise that there is no binding regulation on the subject. The little debate or recognition of environmental migration by the international community has resulted in little to no tangible action, leaving environmental migrants suffering in legal limbo.

Policy Recommendations 

The need for regulation on environmental migration is evident and it cannot be ignored by the international community any longer. One course of action would be to amend the existing climate change regulation to include environmental migrants, but this limits policy options.  

A more wide and specific approach would be to draw on existing legal frameworks and literature, including human rights, refugee laws, environmental law, and existing laws on climate change to create a holistic legal framework on the matter. The creation of a new convention based upon this legal framework would ensure international recognition of the concept. A legal framework with which member states of the UN could adopt or create new national laws is essential, not only to recognize the shared responsibility of the problem but also to ensure that migrants are protected. The creation of an international organization under the UN to ensure assistance and protection would also be helpful, or the UNHCR could expand its mandate on the matter and be the organization in charge of assistance and protection. The UNFCCC should also recognize environmental migrants as a direct consequence of climate change; this would help to create and build migration and mobility policies within existing adaptation strategies, laws, policies, and institutions.

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Climate Change Negotiations Timeline 

1979 First World Climate Conference 

Climate change was recognized as a serious problem, it explored how climate change might affect human activities in the future and it issued a declaration making a calling to the world’s governments “to foresee and prevent potential man-made changes in climate that might be adverse to the well-being of humanity.” (UNFCCC, 2000)

 1988 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 

IPCC was established by the UNEP and the WMO, its initial task was outlined in the United Nations (UN) General Assembly (GA) Resolution 43/53 (IPCC, 2020). Its main objective was to prepare a comprehensive review and recommendations regarding the knowledge of climate change and potential strategies and possible future international conventions (IPCC, 2020).

 1990 The IPCC and the Second World Climate Change Conference 

Negotiations and discussions of a climate treaty. The final declaration didn’t specify any international targets for the reduction of emissions, but it did support a number of principles, such as climate change as a common concern for humankind, the importance of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities, that was later included in the Climate Change Convention (UNFCC, 1993). 

 1991 First Meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee

            The debate surrounded addressing the issue of global climate change in an integrated and comprehensive matter, making emphasis on the principles mentioned at the Second World Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC, 1991).

 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

            The UN sought to help governments rethink economic development and find ways to stop polluting the planet, it also leads to the adoption of Agenda 21 an official global consensus on development environmental cooperation (UN, 1993). 27 principles on new and equitable partnerships and development through cooperation among States, social sectors and individuals (UN, 1993).

 1994 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

            Entry into force in 1994, the UN entity tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change (UNFCCC, 2020).

 1995 The First Conference of the Parties (COP1)

            Voiced concerns about the countries’ capability to meet commitments under the Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (BSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), the parties agreed to joint measures in international climate action (Down to Earth, 2019).

 1997 Kyoto Protocol

            Commits industrialized countries and economies in transition to reduce and limit their greenhouse gases emissions with individual targets, it’s based on principles and provisions and follows an annex-based structure binding only developed countries because it recognizes that they are largely responsible for the high-level emissions of greenhouse gases (UNFCCC, 2020).

 2001 Marrakesh Accords (COP7)

            Adopted at the COP7, it details the rules for implementation of the Kyoto Protocol setting up new funding and planning instruments for adaptation and establishing a technology transfer framework (UN, 2002).

 2005 Kyoto Protocol entry into force and First Meeting of Parties (MOP1)

            Parties launched negotiations on the next phase of the Kyoto Protocol under the ad hoc working groups (UN, 2020).

 2007 IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report

            Climate science entered into popular knowledge. COP13 parties agreed on the Bali Roadmap which represented the work that needed to be done to secure the climate future (UNFCCC, 2020).

 2010 COP16

            Parties limited global warming to 2 centigrade, protection of vulnerable forests and establishing a framework for a Green Climate Fund meant to deliver funds to developing countries for mitigation and adaptation actions (EESI, 2020).

2015 Paris Agreement

            First Universal legally binding global climate agreement, its long term temperature goal is to keep the increase of global average temperature to well below 2 centigrade (EU, 2020).

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