Climate Change, Migration and Security

As migrações humanas induzidas por causas ambientais não são novidade na história humana. A novidade, porém, é o aumento exponencial desse tipo de movimento migratório pelo mundo. De acordo com dados do International Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC, 2015), apenas no ano de 2014 novas 19,3 milhões de pessoas foram forçadas a migrar em todo mundo em decorrência de fatores ambientais, sem contar as pessoas que já haviam migrado nos anos anteriores por razões relacionadas ao meio ambiente.
Embora o tema não seja novo, os questionamentos jurídicos recentes preocupavam-se mais com a nomenclatura a ser utilizada para esse grupo de migrantes do que propriamente com formas de se buscar ampará-los nos instrumentos normativos de direito interno e internacional. Por esse motivo, a tese de doutorado defendida e aprovada com distinção na Faculdade de Direito da USP buscou aprofundar o tema a partir das formas pelas quais o direito internacional pode, efetivamente, conferir direitos aos “refugiados ambientais” ao invés de se limitar a discutir se eles são ou não refugiados nos termos da Convenção da ONU sobre o Estatuto dos Refugiados (1951).

Climate change threatens to cause the largest refugee crisis in human history. Millions of people, largely in Africa and Asia, might be forced to leave their homes to seek refuge in other places or countries over the course of the century. Yet the current institutions, organizations, and funding mechanisms are not sufficiently equipped to deal with this looming crisis. The situation calls for new governance. We thus outline and discuss in this article a blueprint for a global governance architecture on the protection and voluntary resettlement of climate refugees—defined as people who have to leave their habitats because of sudden or gradual alterations in their natural environment related to one of three impacts of climate change: sea-level rise, extreme weather events, and drought and water scarcity. We provide an extensive review of current estimates of likely numbers and probable regions of origin of climate refugees. With a view to existing institutions, we argue against the extension of the definition of refugees under the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Key elements of our proposal are, instead, a new legal instrument specifically tailored for the needs of climate refugees—a Protocol on Recognition, Protection, and Resettlement of Climate Refugees to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—as well as a separate funding mechanism.

Scientists predict serious impacts of climate change that could compel millions of people to leave their homes beginning sometime in the next decades. Yet the existing institutions and organizations are not sufficiently equipped to deal with this looming crisis. Reforms toward a system of global adaptation governance as part of a larger program toward comprehensive earth system governance are thus needed. Some of the possible reform options—extending the definition of refugees under the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or giving responsibilities to the UN Security Council—are less promising and might even be counterproductive. A better solution appears to lie with a new legal instrument specifically tailored for the needs of climate refugees—a Protocol on the Recognition, Protection, and Resettlement of Climate Refugees to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, supported by a separate funding mechanism, the Climate Refugee Protection and Resettlement Fund.

CLIMATE MIGRATION: REFLECTIONS IN THE WORLD AND TURKEY
The subject of this study is to evaluate the impacts of climate change on the quality of human life and to observe the correlation of this aspects with the immigration behavior. Global and local forced migration due to the habitat destruction and the formation of immigration phenomenon by climate changes are the key motivations of this study.
In order to obtain consistent results from this study, issues arisen with global and local environmental and climatic factors are discussed by providing examples considering the comparison of immigration phenomenon in Turkey and in the world.
In this context, as a result of the research, it has been found that people see to migrate as an option due to environmental issues and climate change and global warming will lead to more intense consequences like mass migration if adequate measures are not taken.

This chapter reports findings from a systematic review of 183 scholarly articles published in the English language on the environmental change-international migration nexus spanning the period from 1989–2015. We organized the articles into five main categories: (1) empirical research, (2) theoretical/conceptual frameworks, (3) legal papers, (4) policy papers, and (5) literature reviews. In addition to descriptive statistics regarding disciplinary affiliations, world regions, and types of environmental factors examined, we review the main debates and emerging issues among articles within each category, as well as discussions among scholars about appropriate institutional frameworks and policy responses. We observe a growing plurality of approaches and perspectives, which is contributing to increasingly complex and enriched understandings of the linkages between environment and migration. We also note a growing number of securitization discourses on migration and environmental change, a move toward depoliticization of discussions about climate change-related migration, and increasing calls for practical policy responses; given such trends, a key challenge scholars face is how to reconcile these increasingly divergent scholarly perspectives so as to enable the generation of progressive policy responses in practice.
Key words: international environmental migration, systematic literature review, environmental migration research, depoliticization of climate-induced migration, migration policy

Climate change and the insecurity it stimulates have the potential to amplify existing conflicts, trigger conflicts over scarce resources, and trigger forced migration (refugees and internally displaced persons or IDPs) now and in the future. Climate conflicts converge with transnational criminal activity (cartels and gangs) and exacerbate violence against persons in fragile communities. These convergences have reduced the availability of areas that are safe for displaced persons, increased resource stresses (including deforestation and water stress), displaced additional populations, and made it harder for migrants to seek refuge in countries like the United States or nations in Europe (both the European Union and the United Kingdom). This paper looks at the potential for humanitarian intelligence to protect climate migrants.

The remittances provided by migrant members of households are frequently celebrated as a positive force for community development and for disaster recovery. Using empirical evidence provided by Filipino migrants living in Canada regarding their remittance behaviour in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, this chapter considers the environment-migration nexus in the context of transnational linkages and the role that remittances play in reducing a household’s environmental risk, and assisting in disaster relief. We complicate the idea that migrant remittances are a panacea by highlighting inequities and burdens that can exist within transnational households and communities. A transnational framework provides a useful lens to deepen understanding of the complexities of the mobility-immobility spectrum in the context of environmental challenges.
Key words: remittances, transnationalism, transnational social fields, disaster relief, risk reduction, Filipino, Typhoon Haiyan

Pakistan is grappling with the worsening impact of climate change, causing increased migration and displacement across the country. This Islamic Relief research report examines one of the extreme consequences of climate change: climate induced migration. This study makes comparisons between popular global perspectives and local realities by studying incidences of movements in 3 distinct regions of Pakistan: Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

It delves in to the root causes of climate induced migration across the 3 provinces and shares insights into the perceptions and governance gaps to address migration issues across these areas. It includes specific recommendations and calls for the government of Pakistan as well international community to take swift action to address the worsening effect of climate change on migration patterns in Pakistan.

Climate security is a burgeoning focus of the multidisciplinary literatures investigating the impacts from climate change. This research theme has gained prominence due to the realisation that climatic changes will likely compromise human welfare and community stability, with significant implications for governments' security agendas. The Indo-Pacific region is an important case study for understanding climate security given its ongoing environmental and developmental challenges and the cultural, political and economic tensions existing within and between neighbouring countries. This paper presents a systematic review and synthesis of academic and "grey" literatures that address climate adaptation, disaster management or regional security in the Indo-Pacific. From this review, we identify four key themes that arise prominently in discussion and analysis prepared by academic scholars, governments and non-government organisations alike. The ubiquity of these themes speaks to the interdependent nature of the adaptation, disaster management and security challenges. The literature is in agreement that maintaining and enhancing climate security in the Indo-Pacific will depend on the region's capacity to strategically coordinate between the activities of governments, industry and communities; the willingness of governments to meaningfully cooperate with communities and each other despite existing tensions; governments' ability to manage limited resources efficiently; and their capacity to identify and address climate-maladaptive path dependencies. We highlight the most popular prescriptions for addressing these concurrent challenges at the current time. We argue that these prescriptions warrant further research and will likely have broader applicability for addressing climate security challenges in other regions of the world.

Brazil has witnessed an increased level of human mobility due to environmental change. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, between 2008 and 2014, Brazil was among the countries with the highest numbers of internally displaced persons. Furthermore, the country is one of the top destinations of cross-border displaced persons by disasters in the region. However, the country lacks migration laws and policies to cope with the increasing number of displaced persons. This policy brief aims at identifying these gaps in the Brazilian law and related policies concerning migration caused by disaster, climate change or other environmental changes and provides a comprehensive overview on existing law and policies. Some recommendations to solve these gaps are presented.

This is an analytical essay, which answers the question of 'With close reference to empirical examples, identify the principal security issues raised by climate change and assess how successfully these are being addressed.' We live in a world where climate change is predominantly a broader subject in everyday life both in the news and social media. Especially in recent years, climate change has been a worrying circumstance which has ultimately resulted in security issues being heightened. Some of the security issues raised are local resource competition, livelihood uncertainty and migration, transboundary water management and natural disasters which may have unintended consequences.

Evidence is increasing that climate change and variability may influence human migration patterns. However, there is less agreement regarding the type of migration streams most strongly impacted. This study tests whether climate change more strongly impacted international compared to domestic migration from rural Mexico during 1986–99. We employ eight temperature and precipitation-based climate change indices linked to detailed migration histories obtained from the Mexican Migration Project. Results from multilevel discrete-time event-history models challenge the assumption that climate-related migration will be predominantly short distance and domestic, but instead show that climate change more strongly impacted international moves from rural Mexico. The stronger climate impact on international migration may be explained by the self-insurance function of international migration, the presence of strong migrant networks, and climate-related changes in wage difference. While a warming in temperature increased international outmigration, higher levels of precipitation declined the odds of an international move.