BaCCC/Module 6/Lesson 2/Part 2

The impacts of climate change displacement and migration

Whether displacement or migration is a forced or a chosen adaptation measure, unintended consequences can be the result. Either strategy can create new challenges, such as social and economic dislocation, conflict and a strain on resources in the destination areas. It is important for governments and international organisations to address these challenges through supportive policies and programmes, while also working to mitigate the causes of climate change to reduce the need for migration in the first place.

As Joan Rosenhauer points out, for refugees, climate change is a threat multiplier. The effects of climate change will not only lead to enormous numbers of displaced people in the future but are also making life harder for refugees in the present. And this is whether people are refugees because of the impacts of climate change or climate change is impacting people who are already refugees. A colleague of Rosenhauer in Zimbabwe said, after Cyclone Idai in 2019:

“	Imagine having fled your home after violence was imminent for you that threatened your life. You’re grabbing your kids. You’re fleeing. You’re trying to settle into a home and place with almost no resources. You’re living in a strange place with a mud hut. And then [imagine] having it all flattened by a storm. You’ve had to leave everything behind, and you’ve lost everything already once, and now twice. It’s those kinds of experiences where we see that climate change really multiplies the challenges that refugees face.	”
—A colleague of Rosenhauer

In early 2023, after Cyclone Freddy had ripped through the southeastern region of Africa – twice – Lazarus Chakwera, president of Malawi, stated, “We had been trying to build back from Cyclone Idai in 2019, and then the pandemic, now Freddy. We are in a perpetual cycle of trying to pull ourselves up and getting knocked back down.” He said that nearly half of his country had been damaged by Cyclone Freddy, which had killed hundreds of people. “This demonstrates that climate change issues are real, and we are standing right in the path of it.” President Chakwera added that the climate crisis had the potential to keep “a nation like Malawi in perpetual poverty.”

Malawi President Declares Half of Country Damaged by Cyclone

This tragic disaster makes it easy to imagine how people become climate refugees: displaced persons having (or migrants choosing) to leave their damaged or destroyed homes and move somewhere else.

According to Rosenhauer, “the intersection between climate change and its impact on people and forcible displacement is clearly recognized” (in Remedios, 2020).

Rosenhauer (cited in Remedios, 2020) is concerned about the numbers:

The UN estimates that by 2050, up to 250 million people will be displaced by climate change impacts, such as rising sea levels and floods and famine and droughts. That’s a huge number. We currently have 79.5 million people displaced. They’re talking 250 million people by 2050 so it’s clearly going to be a huge challenge.

It’s going to very much impact internally displaced people. Not everybody will cross a border, and so we have to help countries prepare to help their people. And we have to help the people who are in that situation now, and then build toward helping others as this happens so that they can mitigate their impact (though, in many cases, their impact is minimal). But also, so that they can adapt as they need to.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, data show that disasters linked to climate change likely worsen poverty, hunger and access to natural resources, stoking instability and violence.

“	From Afghanistan to Central America, droughts, flooding, and other extreme weather events are hitting those least equipped to recover and adapt,” said the UN agency, which is calling for countries to work together to combat climate change and mitigate its impact on hundreds of millions of people. Since 2010, weather emergencies have forced around 21.5 million people a year to move, on average. Roughly 90% of refugees come from countries that are the most vulnerable and least ready to adapt to the impacts of climate change., 2021	”
—United Nations – UN News

Climate Change Link to Displacement of Most Vulnerable Is Clear

Locate the following article by Florian Zandt and examine the diagram:

Average Number of Internal Climate Migrants by 2050 per Region

Activity

What is another way that a government (at any level) could include concern for climate refugees in adaptation strategies? Write it in your learning journal, and then suggest it on social media with the hashtag #ClimateRefugees. See if anyone else is thinking the same thing as you.