As evidenced by the climate negotiations in Cancun last year, the challenges of climate-induced migration have arrived on the international climate policy agenda.  The Ad-Hoc Working Group on long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) took up the issue by inviting all parties to enhance action on adaptation; topics included "Measures to enhance understanding, coordination and cooperation with regard to climate change induced displacement, migration and planned relocation, where appropriate, at national, regional and international levels".  In order to explore how the issue fits in the larger context, representatives of various UN institutions discussed the role of displacement and migration in the framework of future adaptation needs and coping capacity at a COP-16 side event.

Diego Palastios Jaramillo of the UN Population Fund stressed that implementing effective climate-related migration policy requires one to understand that such migration is not a failure to adapt, but rather an adaptation strategy.  Further, the issue is so complex that a number of gaps still need to be filled in the research. Javier Hernandez of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights (UN HCHR) advocated that any approach to the question of migration must place the protection of human rights at its core.  Here, one must take note that vulnerability to climate change not only increases when people migrate, but also when they stay put, with repercussions such as resource scarcity that will only get worse.  Koko Warner of the UN University in Bonn spoke about the effects of climate change that induce, and that will increasingly induce, migration.  In addition to natural catastrophes, drought, and worsening desertification, such problems as resource conflicts, especially over water, will also contribute to migration.

In order to come up with a comprehensive approach to the challenges of climate-induced migration, the international community needs to address the issue early in climate negotiations – despite and taking note of existing research gaps.  With this text in the work of the AWG-LCA, a small step has been made to recognize the nexus between migration, climate change, and the environment, and to develop future strategies in the area of adaptation. (Aki Kachi)

The AWG-LCA decision can be found at the following link: http://unfccc.int/files/meetings/cop_16/application/pdf/cop16_lca.pdf.

A collection of initiatives of the organizations involved in the side event can be found here.

Published in: ECC-Newsletter, 1/2011