• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta June 29, 2022
London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty June 29, 2022
G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance June 29, 2022
Soaring Fertilizer Prices Could Deliver ‘Silver Lining’ For Emissions, But Farmers Struggle to Limit Use June 26, 2022
BREAKING: UN Nature Summit, the ‘Paris Conference for Biodiversity’, Moves to Montreal in December June 19, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Climate Impacts & Adaptation Environmental Justice

Cities Must Prepare for Waves of Climate Refugees: Panel

May 16, 2022
Reading time: 3 minutes
Primary Author: Christopher Bonasia @CBonasia_

Robert Stansfield/Department for International Development/Wikimedia Commons

Robert Stansfield/Department for International Development/Wikimedia Commons

17
SHARES
 

The current narrative linking international human migration with increased security risks should not be accepted at face value, say experts, and policy-makers must focus on building cohesive strategies and support systems for migration within borders in anticipation of large influxes of climate refugees, a conference audience heard last week.

“The majority of the population is on the move due to the impacts of climate change, be it within their own country or within a geographical limited region,” said Manuel Marques Pereira, head of the migration, environment, climate change and risk reduction division at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told the Montreal Climate Security Summit May 12.

Pereira added that this internal migration is often linked to poor access to services and livelihood security, making it essential to address the underlying issues that are the primary drivers of displacement.

“It’s very important that we understand that the concept around displacement within countries is a concept of internal displacement, in which the member states have the duty to protect their own citizens,” Pereira said.

Dr. Kanta Kumari Rigaud, lead environmental specialist and regional climate change coordinator for Africa at the World Bank, called attention to the organization’s 2021 projection that 216 million people will be displaced globally by 2050. She added that the projection was a worst case scenario that could be reduced with proactive and effective policies that account for locality and geography.

“The bottom line from the World Bank is that we cannot look at development and poverty eradication… without looking at the issues of climate change,” Rigaud said. “And we cannot ignore mobility, which is going to really impact sometimes the poorest and most vulnerable in those localities.”

Effective policies will not only invest in existing infrastructure and support systems, but develop new conventions for dealing with the root causes of migration. This is especially true for urban areas that have greater capacity to accommodate support systems, but where failing to develop resources for migrants could also lead to greater risk that can threaten security.

“Urban planning is the growth in the development of sustainable cities, and [of] cities that are capable of dealing, not only with socio-demographic transformations, but also with climate transformations,” said Pereira.

Rigaud agreed that cities will play an important role in solving the human migration crisis, adding that an urban transition is already under way. Climate factors will be at least partly responsible for increased rural-to-urban migration in places like Sub-Saharan Africa, where populations in cities are expected to rise from 400 million to 1.2 billion people by 2050, she said.

“We need to look at cities across time scales, and we need to anticipate and plan for some of these smaller cities” to accommodate large population influxes, Rigaud told participants. It will be critically important to look at and anticipate this growth—fueled partly by demographics, partly by migration factors—to ensure that “these cities, from the outset, plan for these multiple types of hazards, are green, resilient, and inclusive, and create the kinds of jobs that are really needed for both the youth and others.”

Dr. Aderomola Adeola, assistant director of the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University, agreed on the importance of urban policy for supporting future migration, but said gaps in ongoing legal conversations on human displacement will need to be filled to develop effective policy.

Adeola said the United Nations’ 1951 Refugee Convention fails to include climate impacts in its criteria for persecution suffered by displaced persons, but said theories are being developed to overcome this barrier.

She warned that there is a pressing gap in the legal conversation, arising from the siloed nature of plans for climate adaptation and climate displacement. By engaging stakeholders in multisectoral projects across various levels of government, “we can actually reach such gaps and ensure that… we develop national government policies that have an inclusiveness context,” Adeola said.



in Cities & Communities, Climate Impacts & Adaptation, Environmental Justice, Health & Safety, International Agencies & Studies, Jobs & Training, Legal & Regulatory

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Keith Hirsche
Jobs & Training

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

June 29, 2022
68
London Eye UK England
Cities & Communities

London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 29, 2022
45
Number 10/flickr
International Agencies & Studies

G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance

June 29, 2022
54

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

David/flickr

U.S. Supreme Court Expected to Gut Emission Controls as Climate Scientists Petition for Plan B

June 26, 2022
1.1k
Keith Hirsche

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

June 29, 2022
68
Number 10/flickr

G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance

June 29, 2022
54
London Eye UK England

London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 29, 2022
45
Konrad Summers/Kern West Oil Museum via Wikimedia Commons

Imperial Oil Backs Lithium Recovery Project in Alberta’s Leduc Oilfield

June 26, 2022
210
Graco/Facebook

Soaring Fertilizer Prices Could Deliver ‘Silver Lining’ For Emissions, But Farmers Struggle to Limit Use

June 27, 2022
199

Recent Posts

AJEL / Pixabay

Windfall Tax on Food, Fossil, Pharma Giants Would Raise $490B to Solve ‘Catastrophic’ Food Crisis: Oxfam

June 29, 2022
18
futureatlas.com/flickr

Ottawa Demands Deeper Fuel Emissions Cuts, Offers Fossils a Double-Dip on Tax Breaks

June 29, 2022
25
Province of B.C./flickr

Comox Joins Municipalities Seeking Ban on New Gas Stations

June 29, 2022
15
Danielle Scott/flickr

Advocate Urges Ottawa to Intervene Before Ontario Builds Highway 413

June 29, 2022
26
François GOGLINS/wikimedia commons

Corrosion Problem Shutters Half of France’s Nuclear Reactors

June 29, 2022
27
/Piqsels

Refocus Agriculture Spending to Cut Emissions, Boost Productivity, OECD Urges Governments

June 29, 2022
9
Next Post
Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

U.S. Cancels Oil and Gas Lease Sales in Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, with Five-Year Drilling Plan in Doubt

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}