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Environmental Migration Newsletter
Knowledge Platform on People on the Move in a Changing Climate
February 2018
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Migration, Environment and Climate Change (MECC) Updates
© IOM 2018 

Pacific Region Discusses Links between Human Mobility,
Environment and Climate Change
13-14 February 2018
Suva, Fiji
 
IOM, the UN Migration Agency, in collaboration with the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD), has organized a regional capacity building workshop for Pacific Islands on Human Mobility in the Context of Disasters and Climate Change, hosted by the Government of Fiji.
 
The event was attended by over 20 policymakers working on migration and climate change from eight countries - the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
 
Experts from other UN agencies and partner institutions, including GIZ, IFRC, ILO, OHCHR, UNESCAP, UNISDR, UNU-EHS and the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney also took part.
 
The Pacific Islands are extremely vulnerable to climate change and face disproportionately high disaster risks. In addition to cyclones, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis causing disasters in the region, rising temperatures and sea levels, coastal erosion and salinity intrusion are also accelerating due to climate change.
 
As a result, diverse mobility patterns have emerged in the Pacific. They include evacuations and displacement in the context of sudden-onset disasters and pre-emptive migration or planned relocation in the face of slow-onset processes or recurrent sudden-onset events that have affected people over a long period of time.
 
At the same time, progress on addressing these population movements is ongoing in the region, with many innovative strategies, policies, and responses being developed at the national and regional levels.
 
The two-day capacity building workshop, funded by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, offered regional policymakers the opportunity to share their experiences and practices, and to discuss potential solutions at regional and national levels.
 
Read the press release
© IOM 2018
 
Humanitarian Debates on Human Mobility
in the Context of Disasters and Climate Change
7 February 2018
Geneva, Switzerland

At this year’s Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Week (HNPW), a thematic discussion was held on the topic of disaster displacement and environmental migration, organized by the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) with the UN Migration Agency (IOM), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). Five sessions were held throughout the day by the different partners with various participants at HNPW attending.
 
The sessions focused on data collection in disaster displacement situations, legal protection solutions for those displaced by disasters and measures to reduce disaster risk. In the session led by IOM, represented by Dina Ionesco, Head of Migration, Environment and Climate Change Division, Agnès Tillinac, Camp Coordination and Camp Management Officer and Raul Andres Soto, DTM Information Management Officer, discussions focused on both the policy and operational approach of IOM in disaster situations, including arising challenges.
 
As the UN Migration Agency, IOM's mandate is to support migration governance and management and this lens is applied to the Organization’s approach to disaster displacement, explained Dina Ionesco. IOM supports governments and stakeholders to integrate disaster and climate change considerations in migration policy. In addition, as the lead agency of Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) in disaster situations, IOM works with governments and other UN agencies to provide assistance and protection to those displaced. This is not without challenges: for example, Agnès Tillinac pointed out that there is increasing out of camp displacement in the context of disasters, which poses difficulties for people to access services and rights. In last year’s response hurricane season in the Caribbean, IOM deployed its Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) team to the affected island territories, to ensure adequate planning of aid. Small-scale disasters can also highly impact families and communities as in the Caribbean islands, described Raul Andres Soto, so needs must be recorded. This is, in part, the reasoning behind IOM’s increased efforts to respond to high impact crises which are not among the classic Level-3 emergencies.
After Hurricane Matthew in Haiti © IOM/Hajer Naili 2017 

Seminar on Climate Change, Displacement and the Law
23 February 2018
Dublin, Ireland
 
The University College Cork (UCC) Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights and the Irish Red Cross Society organized a seminar on “Climate Change, Displacement and the Law” in Dublin on February 23rd, 2018.

The seminar examined current and future effects of climate change and their impact on the movement of people, key challenges and implications for humanitarian organizations, as well as legal and policy frameworks that are applicable in that context.

Speakers included international and Irish experts from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Trócaire, the IOM and the UCC Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights.

The seminar also served as the occasion to launch the Disaster Law Information Sheets produced by the UCC and Irish Red Cross Society as part of the International Disaster Law project, funded by the Irish Research Council. The Information Sheets examine key aspects of disasters and the law, including in relation to disaster risk reduction, gender-based violence, human rights and disaster displacement.
 

Addressing Migration and Environment Climate Change
in the Global Compact for Migration 
 

At the 108th Session of the Council of the IOM, a High-level Panel entitled ‘Opportunities to Address Migration and Climate Change in the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration’ was organized. The Panel highlighted that the international community can no longer design migration policy without taking into account the environmental state of our planet and its impacts on all policy areas.

With the participation of:
  • Amb. William Lacy Swing, Director General of IOM
  • Amb. Laura Thompson, Deputy Director General of IOM
  • Mr. Nicolas Hulot, Minister of State, Minister for Ecological and Inclusive Transition of France
  • Amb. Nazhat Shameem Khan, Permanent Representative of Fiji to the United Nations in Geneva and Chief Negotiator for the COP23 Presidency
  • Prof. Walter Kaelin, Envoy of the Chair of the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD)
  • Ms. Keiko Kiyama, Co-President of the Japan Emergency NGO and Executive Director of Japan Platform
Watch video in French

MECC Policy Brief Series
Deadline Extended until 16 March 2018

The editorial board of the Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Policy Brief Series would like to invite authors to submit proposals for 2018 issues.

The Series is open to all areas of the migration-environment nexus, covering various forms of environmental and climate-related hazards as well as all types of human mobility. We particularly welcome results of inter- and trans-disciplinary research.

Proposals should include an abstract (max. 300 words), a table of contents, and at least 800 words of the draft text or summary of research. Proposals should be single-spaced and should be no more than 1,500 words. References, tables, and appendices count against this page limit. All proposals will be subject to editorial review.

For further information, download the full Call for Proposals. 

Research Database Updates
'Climate Refugees': Beyond the Legal Impasse?
Search the database

Upcoming Events
Human Rights Council 37th Session - Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Summary of the panel discussion on human rights, climate change, migrants and persons displaced across international borders
8 March 2018 | Geneva, Switzerland
 
International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) High-level Panel - “Climate Refugees”: Drop the quotation marks!
14 March 2018 | Geneva, Switzerland

7th meeting of the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage Associated with Climate Change Impacts
13-16 March 2018 | Bonn, Germany

Task Force on Displacement Stakeholder Meeting
14-15 May 2018 | Bogis-Bossey, Switzerland
 
See events
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