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IOM Council Panel Highlights Migration, Environment, Climate Change Link

30 November 2017
Geneva, Switzerland

IOM, the UN Migration Agency, held a high-level panel discussion to identify and assess opportunities to address migration and climate change in the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular migration (GCM). The event was convened during the 108th Session of the IOM Council in Geneva.

IOM Director General, William Lacy Swing moderated the panel which included Nicolas Hulot, Minister of State, Minister for Ecological and Inclusive Transition of France; Ambassador Nazhat Shameem Khan, Permanent Representative of Fiji to the United Nations in Geneva and Chief Negotiator for the COP23 Presidency; and Keiko Kiyama, Executive Director of the Japan Platform and Co-President of the Japan Emergency NGO, who represented civil society. Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC and Erik Solheim, Executive Director of UN Environment shared written and video statements, respectively.

In the past 10 years, environmental migration has been primarily acknowledged and addressed at the international level in climate change negotiations. DG Swing highlighted that “the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration offers yet another historical opportunity, this time within the international migration governance policy realm, to recognize the importance of environmental and climate factors.”

Minister Hulot said, “Migration in the context of environment and climate change is a living reality that affects hundreds of thousands of women, men and children, already in a vulnerable situation.” He further underscored that “cooperation among countries of origin, transit and destination is necessary and indispensable.” He pointed out that “countries most vulnerable to climate change are the first to welcome climate migrants and with a solidary spirit. We must also rise up to the challenge.”

 

Global Compact for Migration:
A Unique Opportunity to Address Environmental Migration

4 - 6 December 2017
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

The stocktaking phase of the process towards the adoption of a Global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration has begun with a conference in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on 4-6 December 2017.  The high-level event aimed to summarize the six thematic sessions and propose priorities at all levels of decision-making. The meeting touched on environmental migration, especially through the discussions at the community, local, national and global level, with an emphasis on the need to address climate change as a driver of migration. During the consultation phase that just came to an end, environmental migration had also been discussed in the global thematic sessions, particularly in discussions addressing the drivers of migration, but also in the regional, national and civil society consultations.

The next steps in the stocktaking phase are for the co-facilitators to collect any additional input, and for the United Nations Secretary General to release his report containing the UN System’s recommendations. Following the stocktaking, a zero-draft of the compact will be released by the co-facilitators of the process at the beginning of 2018, which will be the basis for States negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations.

The Global compact for migration, expected to be adopted at the end of 2018, offers a unique opportunity to address environmental migration with a three-fold view: i) tackle the drivers of migration, including disasters and the adverse effects of climate change, in order to reduce related forced migration; ii) provide measures for protection and assistance when forced migration cannot be avoided; and iii) create pathways and facilitate migration as a strategy to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change.


Read more on how to address and integrate environmental migration in the compact on the Portal and in IOM's Thematic Paper ‘Migrants and Migration Policy in the Context of the Adverse Effects of Climate Change and Environmental Degradation’.

© IOM 2017
 

IOM Namibia Facilitates National Dialogue on Migration, Environment
and Climate Change

13 December 2017
Windhoek, Namibia
 

IOM and Namibia’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) held a National Dialogue to discuss the findings of the Country Assessment on Migration, Environment and Climate Change. The Country Assessment was implemented under the regional project Migration, Environment, and Climate Change (MECC): Evidence for Policy in Southern Africa and in the Indian Ocean which supports Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique as well as Namibia, and funded by the IOM Development Fund.

Namibia is one of the countries most affected by the adverse impacts of climate change. The predicted increases in temperature and rainfall variability are likely to be one of the major challenges to the sustainable development of Namibia and will have consequences on human mobility.

The Head of Office for IOM Namibia, Ms. Lilian Ambuso, pointed out how this project is aligned with a number of International agreements and processes that recognize that disasters, climate change and other environmental factors as drivers of migration and stressed the need for human mobility to be addressed at various levels. Honorable Tommy Nambahu, the Deputy Minister of MET, spoke highly of the assessment as a great tool which helps raise awareness and inform policymakers, planners and lawmakers about the pressing issue of displacement of people due to floods, droughts and other climate-related events in Namibia. He also stressed the importance of mainstreaming environmental changes into national migration management policies and issues of migration into environmental and development policies.

In addition to taking stock of the findings of the assessment, participants discussed and developed a blueprint document for policy where MECC priority areas for Namibia were identified for operational planning purposes. The blueprint document is expected to be used to inform Namibia’s position, expectations and commitments during the Regional Dialogue on MECC in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and Indian Ocean Committee (IOC) regions.

About 52 participants from key governmental stakeholders such as the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration, the Disaster Risk Management Office of the Prime Minister. as well as non-governmental stakeholders, representatives of the wider UN family in Namibia and members of the diplomatic missions attended the national dialogue.

The Namibia Country Assessment on Migration, Environment and Climate Change will be available in early 2018.

For further information, please contact Mr. Sascha Nlabu at IOM Namibia, Tel: +264 61 231 639,
Email: snlabu@iom.int

© INTA, UNA-USA 2017
 

The International Network of Tropical Architecture held its sixth annual conference on 1-3 December 2017, at the University of Florida in Gainesville. This year, the theme of the conference was dedicated to Tropical Storms as a Setting for Adaptive Development and Architecture.

In a context where storms and hurricanes displace millions of people each year, IOM was invited to present its policy and operational work on climate migration, highlighting the challenges observed in terms of governance and field responses. The linkages between climate migration and urban planning and urban development were discussed from the perspective of both communities of origin of climate migrants and areas of destination, as many of the practitioners presenting at the conference work in communities hosting large numbers of migrants. A wide range of issues was discussed in relation to climate migration, notably safe housing, access to basic services and sound urban planning. 

For more information, visit: http://inta17.org/
 
To celebrate Human Rights Day, the United Nations Association –  USA (San Diego Chapter), organized an event focusing on refugees and migrants’ rights on 10 December 2017, bringing together over 300 civil society representatives and members of the public from California. IOM was invited as a keynote speaker to discuss the human rights’ dimensions of the climate-migration nexus. The event represented the opportunity to recall that human rights law is currently the most comprehensive global legal framework available to ensure the protection of those forced to or choosing to migrate due to climate impacts and changes in their environment. IOM has produced several resources dedicated to analyzing the legal frameworks relevant to climate and environmental migration that can be consulted on the Environmental Migration Portal.

For more information, visit: http://unasd.org/human-rights-day-december-10/