What COP27 may mean for the climate-displaced
“History was made”, the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) celebrated as the conference concluded on 18 November with a hopeful loss and damage fund for developed countries to pay developing countries, who are “the most vulnerable to climate disasters, yet who have contributed little to the climate crisis”. The fund is a result of strong advocacy by developing countries to receive compensation by developed countries and is definitely cause for celebration — but with climate-related displacement not on the COP27 agenda, there is concern over how much of the loss and damage fund will support climate-displaced people.
Help cannot come fast enough as the number of people displaced due to climate change is already high and expected to rise — 23.7 million people were displaced because of it in 2021, and it is estimated that over 216 million people may become internally displaced by 2050 due to a changing climate. Yet despite the urgency, people who are displaced due to climate change have relatively few international protections. This is due in part to the nature of climate-related displacements and in part to the current international legal framework.
Slow, onset climate change
Climate change may bring to mind images of devastating hurricanes, droughts and floods which leave communities uninhabitable in their wake. These are sudden, dangerous events which cultivate international media interest and humanitarian donations. While these are certainly examples of climate change, when it comes to displacement, many people flee what is known as slow, onset climate change, such as gradual desertification, land degradation, ocean acidification, sea level rise and salinization. Slow, onset climate change often doesn’t displace people as quickly and en masse like after a tornado levels a community or a hurricane floods a coastal town and, as a result, doesn’t garner the same level of international interest or donations.
Gradual, incremental changes in the climate often give people little choice but to seek out other opportunities, such as rice farmers losing their crop due to increased salinization of their water. When people are displaced due to climate change, they are more likely to relocate within their own countries, becoming internally displaced persons (IDPs) instead of refugees, who must, by definition, cross an international border to receive help. This means that the countries most affected by climate change are the same countries who must relocate their climate-displaced residents — and they are more likely to be developing than developed.
Over 70% of the world’s displaced people come from the most climate vulnerable countries.
Because they haven’t crossed an international border, internally displaced persons fall under the sovereignty and protection of the country they are in. If that country chooses to seek international assistance, they can invite international bodies like the United Nations UNHCR into their territory to help support IDPs.
While there are exceptions where regions have banded together to assist one another in the protection of internally displaced persons, such as the Great Lakes Protocol and Kampala Convention, the majority of IDPs need assistance from their individual country.
Lacking international protection for the climate-displaced
It is commonly believed that people who are displaced outside of their country can seek international protection as refugees (aka ‘climate refugees’). However, people displaced by climate change do not qualify under the definition of a refugee because they often don’t leave their country and they don’t flee persecution due to their nationality, race, political opinion, religion and/or membership of a particular social group. Concerning these five protected groups, climate change harms indiscriminately.
The 1951 Refugee Convention came into existence to protect people who had to flee their home countries due to persecution, but a hurricane doesn’t decide who to target based upon their nationality, race, political opinion, religion or membership of a particular social group. For those displaced by climate change, “refugee law is probably not the answer.” The loss and damage fund can help to fill a much needed gap in the protection of climate-displaced people.
“We must see dedicated support and scaled-up financing for the countries on the frontlines of the climate emergency, as it is often these same countries that have provided protection to refugees for decades.”
Looking ahead to COP28
With the loss and damage agreement reached, the nitty gritty details will be worked out over the coming months, with the goal of having a “financial support structure for the most vulnerable” in place by COP28 to be held in 2023. But who are the ‘most vulnerable’ — and are climate-displaced people included?
“The final COP27 text cited “displacement”, “relocation”, and “migration” as some of the many “gaps” that need to be tackled in the coming months as the new loss and damage financing is discussed — potentially carving out more space for mobility in coming climate negotiations.”
The COP 27 agenda didn’t include climate displacement, but the final text hinted that world leaders saw the omission as a gap to be filled. When world leaders meet again next year at COP28, they have the opportunity to help fill an international protection gap by including the needs of current and future climate-displaced people in the loss and damage agreement.
“World leaders have the responsibility to ensure that climate action finance not only reaches climate-vulnerable countries but also displaced people and their host communities.”
