A holistic approach to understanding climate change displacement
Authors: Ben Griffiths (Vice President of Operations) & Kwesi Mfodwo (National Affairs Officer)
Source: NBC
This is an image of an underwater Maldivian cabinet meeting, aiming to raise global awareness of the climate crisis for the Maldives. While there is definitely a theatrical element, this does highlight the reality that many island nations are facing an existential and destabilising threat. This is primarily through sea level rise and an increased frequency and magnitude of natural disasters which have the potential to cause mass displacement as islands are consumed by the ocean and disasters destroy communities.
Globally, the World Bank projects that there will be 143 million people internally displaced globally by 2050, representing the largest wave of displacement across recorded human history. This will be a significant challenge to grapple with, both within nations and for destination countries when in an external context. As Australians, we have an ethical obligation to pay attention and listen to our neighbours in the Indian and Pacific oceans so that this impending crisis can be met with a resilient and empowered response from these communities. This can be achieved through establishing responses that assist in both preventing and minimising displacement as well as ensuring dignified and humane treatment for those who do become displaced.
Resettlement as a refugee in a new country is seen as a last resort for many people in at-risk nations, who prefer exhausting all opportunities before leaving their homes. As such, this piece will examine climate change responses, internal displacement mechanisms, and legal migration pathways leading up to refugee policy before analysing external displacement and resettlement policy. Thinking intentionally about the words and categories we use to describe displaced people is essential as they confer different legal and moral obligations, as well as playing a critical role in the ways we perceive displacement. Using a term like “refugee” has connotations and political usages that range from images of dependency and vulnerability as well as a high degree of seriousness, and internationally recognised legal obligations. Our interviews with Same Skies explore connotations associated with refugees as well as a pathway to community resilience as well. Alternatively, “migrant” has associations of industriousness, being more of a choice than a refugee faces, negative political associations, and no recognised legal obligations for intake.
Climate change mitigation
Proactively preventing the conditions that create displacement is a crucial element that is often ignored in the conversation about climate refugees. Countries like Australia with abundant wealth and high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita have a responsibility to meaningfully contribute towards global emissions reduction and mitigation measures so that predominantly poorer nations aren’t left alone to face a disproportionate impact for emissions they did not create. This is the basis of the common but differentiated responsibilities principle that is well established in international law and climate change agreements. Despite an ostensible commitment to this principle in treaties such as the Paris Agreement and Kyoto Protocol, the world’s biggest carbon emitters are either making insufficient progress in reducing their emissions, or their emissions are actually increasing. If you’d like to read more on this topic, we have articles on climate justice, climate change mitigation policies, mitigation and adaptation frameworks, and ways you can personally get involved.
Climate change adaptation
Responses to effectively adapt to rising sea levels and natural disasters are essential means through which to preserve sentient wellbeing on these islands. Climate change adaptation measures such as sea walls, early warning systems, and improved resource access and management are another source of preventative measures that seek to minimise displacement through maintaining community resilience. These measures need to be comprehensive, ensuring that both risk reduction and management measures are taken in a way that engages all key stakeholders and meets inter-temporal needs. More information can be found in this table and the corresponding Australian government report.
It’s also important to recognise and include indigenous contributions to adaptation that have been effective over an extended period (such as mangrove tree buffers to manage sea level rise) as well as the contributions of women in traditional leadership roles and knowledge management. The IPCC has further information on the challenges of climate change in small islands as well as research gaps and adaptation efforts.
Climate change litigation
While regulatory schemes and government policies are essential in reducing the impact of climate change, they alone have proven to be insufficient in preventing ecologically harmful activities, such as Adani’s Carmichael coal mine. Furthermore, the international legal instruments which govern climate change responses are often legally unenforceable, meaning that countries are free to engage in behaviour such as using “carryover credits” to decrease how much decarbonisation actually has to occur. In addition to the aforementioned adaptation and mitigation measures, a new method of fighting anthropogenic climate change is emerging to combat these pitfalls – climate change litigation.
Essentially, climate change litigation refers to a variety of legal proceedings taken against a government, corporation, or individual in relation to climate change. These actions could include seeking compensation for adaptation costs, an injunction to stop ecologically harmful activities, or proposing changes to existing environmental regulations. Climate change litigation steps outside the framework of environmental law, and actions can be based in human rights law, tort law, or even constitutional law. Last year, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that the Netherlands is constitutionally obligated to reduce their emissions by 25% based on 1990 levels, in order to ensure that climate change does not threaten their citizens’ human rights. Actions such as this are becoming more common, with approximately 1,444 climate litigation cases having been filed across the world as of January 2020. Climate change litigation presents a promising way to mitigate anthropogenic climate change by assigning legally dischargeable duties through the use of the court system, thereby providing accountability. This is especially useful in the fight against climate change because of the highly complex and transboundary nature of the problem, which means that responsibility for environmental harm is often hard to assign.
Internal displacement
Not all islands face equal climate risk, and there is a lot of heterogeneity with respect to community and institutional resilience both between and within island nations and archipelagos. This complexity creates difficulties in creating a reflexive climate response, but equally brings opportunities for enacting effective internal displacement management systems. Recognising and identifying these asymmetric impacts within a small island context is critical to ensuring successful internal displacement management.
For coastal or smaller island communities vulnerable to sea level rise, relocating inland or to a less vulnerable island within their nation can be a more welcome alternative than international relocation to an unfamiliar environment. However, more research is required to uncover current needs and project future impacts. Moreover, challenges related to land ownership and property rights, social safety nets, an increasingly urban-rural divide, resource access, and disproportionate impacts on vulnerable groups need to be considered in order to effectively maintain community wellbeing and resilience.
External displacement
The degree to which external displacement mechanisms are required is contingent upon the magnitude and effectiveness of mitigation, adaptation, and internal displacement management efforts. It is critical both in an international context and for island communities that these efforts are comprehensive and taken seriously so as to minimise dislocation, community fragmentation, and loss of life. Community led initiatives with active international support are critical to ensuring relative success.
However, the reality is that with current efforts, significant external displacement is projected to occur and systems need to be in place so that the international community can meet displaced people with an empathetic, responsible, and humane response.
Legal migration pathways and settlement policy
The first step to enacting such a system is to expand legal migration pathways, both in terms of quantity and category. Legal migration pathways are seen as a more dignified means to navigate displacement without the difficulties of approaching inadequate or inhumane refugee intake apparatuses. While this is the product of the stigmatisation of refugees themselves, it is important to approach these problems with the perspectives of displaced people in mind as well as institutional realities. With respect to skilled migration pathways, systems require recognition of existing education and experience and programs to facilitate qualification transfer. There are countless examples of immigrants who are left in jobs that do not match their skillset, and being cognisant of this is both to the benefit of immigrants themselves and to the destination countries they arrive in.
Victims of forced displacement have to contend with many issues such as language barriers, cultural adjustments, and the emotional impact of having to flee their home. As such, it is important to ensure that the countries which will end up welcoming the majority of climate migrants have settlement policies which are transparent, accessible, and equitable. Immigrant settlement services in receiving countries should prioritise making the bureaucracy more easily navigable, especially considering potential language barriers. Settlement policy should also be oriented around community level actions and services, such as those offered by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. Initiatives like employment pathways and community-based training programs are essential in facilitating the humane and effective resettlement of refugees, as the transition into life in a new country can be difficult. In particular, settlement policy should encourage grassroots level and community participation, as community acceptance is crucial for meaningful resettlement.
Currently, there is no uniform legal basis for a nation’s obligations towards climate refugees, as the definition of a refugee under international law does not name environmental risk as an element. However, a UN ruling relating to a case between a man from the Pacific island of Kiribati and New Zealand established that “the effects of climate change… may expose individuals to violations of their rights”. Furthermore, the ruling acknowledges that living conditions in an affected country may become “incompatible with the right to life with dignity” well before extreme weather events or sea-level rise make a country entirely uninhabitable. In effect, the ruling identifies a legal basis for the creation of a climate change refugee category. If such a category was adopted by countries globally, victims of forced climate displacement would potentially have access to greater legal entitlements and protections in their destination countries, such as being unable to be deported to their country of origin.
Essentially, pathways that provide opportunities that are not based solely on human capital need to be opened up such that displaced people are all provided with opportunity, as opposed to solely those who have the privilege, wealth, or opportunity to acquire advanced education or training. Thinking beyond moral obligations to take in displaced people, immigration is a widely accepted economic benefit and an essential part of the functioning of modern Australian society, which extends beyond skilled immigrants.