The Current Column

International Migrants Day

“Climate migration” as a political challenge: time to take stock of the actors and activities

Schraven, Benjamin / Jamie Slater
The Current Column (2024)

Bonn: German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), The Current Column of 16 December 2024

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Bonn, 16 December 2024. Climate change is having a considerable impact on displacement and migration across the globe. On the occasion of the forthcoming International Migrants Day on 18 December, many policymakers and civil society actors will once again be pointing out the link between climate change and migration. Migration was also a topic at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku, a conference that many found disappointing. A number of side events were devoted to (forced) displacement, migration and planned relocation in the context of climate change. The topic of migration also played a role during the negotiations themselves, at least to a marginal extent. Can the climate negotiations achieve anything at all on displacement and migration in the context of global warming impacts? Are other institutions and actors not more important? Do the measures implemented by different actors need to be coordinated more effectively?

A sluggish relationship: migration at the COPs

Ever since the conference in Cancún in 2010, the international climate conferences have repeatedly addressed migration, forced displacement and planned relocation (in short: human mobility). Even though they have now been doing so for 14 years, international climate policymakers still find migration a rather difficult topic. Although COP21 (2015) saw a decision taken to set up a Task Force on Displacement, the group still primarily addresses fundamental considerations on the links between climate change and human mobility.

At last year’s COP28 in Dubai, a new dynamism seemed to emerge: the parties agreed on a Loss and Damage Fund to compensate those countries particularly affected by the impacts of climate change. The term ‘loss and damage’ refers to different climate change-related damage to infrastructure of all kinds, agricultural land or livestock, and irreversible losses, for example, the loss of human lives and of biodiversity or because of displacement. The scope of the Loss and Damage Fund is described as ‘promoting equitable, safe and dignified human mobility in the form of displacement, relocation, and migration, in cases of temporary and permanent loss and damage’. Nonetheless, even after COP29 in Baku, much remains vague and unclear.

Beyond climate negotiations

However, climate migration is increasingly being addressed at political level in forums other than the international climate negotiations. The relationship between climate change and mobility is just as diverse and highly complex as the political challenges to which it gives rise. Human mobility in the context of climate change is not in itself something negative, and a ‘climate refugee crisis’ in Europe is an unrealistic prospect for the time being. Climate mobility primarily occurs within the countries and regions affected and can, under certain circumstances, be a strategy for adapting to climate impacts. The general political mission is to promote the positive potential of migration as an adaptation strategy and to minimise dangers and risks such as forced displacement as best as possible, for example through prevention measures. A complex political landscape made up of a wide variety of institutions and organisations has thus emerged in connection with the topic of climate migration in recent years, covering various policy fields and areas of intervention: entities such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) have been developing and coordinating projects and programmes to address climate-related mobility for some time now. Actors such as the European Union (EU) and several national governments have a crucial say here – not least because they are financing several measures. Civil society organisations are also very much involved.

A lack of overview

Many political measures on climate mobility focus on raising awareness among stakeholders or on improving the availability of data. Due to the dynamic situation and the large number of actors and processes involved, no one can say precisely what thematic focuses are being addressed where, who is cooperating with whom and where exactly, and what set-ups are particularly effective. There is no shortage of proposals on how to coordinate the various actors more effectively – for example by setting up a ‘super task force’ on climate mobility under the umbrella of the UN. Such conclusions are overhasty, however: what is needed more than anything else is an extensive stocktake of the actors and their activities along with an in-depth analysis of what works where and why – and what does not.

 

Jamie Slater is a Junior Policy Officer at the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM), working in the migration and mobility team. He specialises in labour migration and climate change and migration. Jamie has a background in research and advocacy, and has worked for the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, Migration Policy Institute Europe and Leiden University.

Benjamin Schraven is a social scientist and associated researcher in the “Environmental Governance” research department at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).