BaCCC/Module 6/Lesson 2/Part 3
Adaptation through a climate justice lens
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Drought + several years of crop failure > loss of livelihood = nothing to return to (except land degradation and conflicts due to climate change). For those directly dependent on the land and on natural resources, this situation is like persecution – it drives people to flee.
Climate change disproportionately impacts the world’s poorest countries and the poorest people within those countries, and yet these are the people and nations who have contributed the least to climate change. According to Amali Tower, of the organisation Climate Refugees, 90% of today’s refugees come from countries that are the most vulnerable and least ready to adapt to climate change. She says that most climate displacement is internal (within the borders of one’s country), but that does not diminish the protection needs of displaced persons.
During the same interview, Parag Khanna, an Indian American specialist in geopolitics and globalisation, predicted that in the 21st century, climate refugees will massively outnumber economic and political migrants and refugees.
Governments must start to develop climate refugee policies – and ensure that they are rooted in climate justice. But there are many things to consider, such as the following:
- internally displaced versus cross-border climate refugees
- developing nations versus developed nations (who is going where?)
- able-bodied versus sick or disabled refugees
- women and children versus men.
The Gendered Impacts of Climate Displacement[1]
By observing one climate change-fuelled disaster after another, climate refugee groups now know the “gendered” impacts of climate displacement, that is, that women and children are 14 times more likely to die in a disaster than men, and 80% more likely to be displaced by climate change. More men than women migrate to other places after a disaster; thus, women fall victim to vulnerable, hazardous situations.
According to Arif Chowdhury, a research associate for the Institute of Water and Flood Management at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, governments have to cover important issues to ensure safe migration and adaptation. These include:
- assurances that property and possessions left behind will be protected
- the right to know the fate of missing relatives
- access to medical, psychological and social services
- the re-issuance of all necessary documents (passports, personal identification documents, birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc.) so that displaced persons can enjoy legal rights and protection against discrimination.
/ Adaptation to Climate Change: Need for a Human Rights Approach[2]
Joan Rosenhauer’s organisation sees education and reconciliation work as vital for refugees and their hosts:
| “ | When people flee, they’re often with people different from them. We want to help people adapt, both the refugee communities and host communities. All people who flee their homes have been through some kind of trauma, and if that goes unaddressed, it will haunt them the rest of their lives. That’s true of adults, but children in particular, if they’re not helped to address this, definitely pay a price later in their lives. So, we want to make sure that we address all of that so that as people are forced to flee their homes due to climate change, they’re best equipped to rebuild their lives and lead a happier life. | ” |
| —Rosenhauer in Remedios, 2020 | ||
Here is a happy story to end this lesson with:
| Refugees and locals in Mauritania |
|---|
| Exchange strategies for adapting to climate change
Malian refugees living in Mauritania are applying and sharing techniques from back home to grow food and protect the environment. Like much of the Sahel region (just south of the Sahara Desert in Africa), both Mali and Mauritania are feeling the effects of climate change – from increasingly unpredictable rainfall, to land degradation and desertification. But back in Mali, Ahmedou Ag ElBokhary and his compatriots had found ways to coax life from the soil. They conserved the little water available by using sunken seed beds and compost, and planted seeds they knew could withstand the heat. When they fled to Mauritania, they brought some of those seeds with them and started small gardens in the camp, using the same techniques to cope with the hot, dry conditions. In the nine years since, they have shared some of those techniques with Mauritanians from the surrounding community who are now growing many of the same varieties of cassava, tomatoes, papaya and other crops. The refugees in turn, have learned from local Mauritanians how to reduce the impact of their livestock on the land by turning grass into hay and sileage for feeding their animals during the dry season. — UNHCR Global Website Read more here (including the part about Malian refugee firefighters putting out 22 bushfires in 2020): Refugees and Locals in Mauritania Exchange Strategies for Adapting to Climate Change[3] |
For this reason:
We use the term “climate refugees” to provoke conversation. To emphasize the political responsibility of climate change. To raise awareness of its ability to impact, one might even say, persecute, some more than others. To contribute, provoke and challenge policy. To highlight need by giving voice to those affected and to help seek their legal protection. Ultimately, to present this as a challenge to human rights.
The next lesson will talk about how the rest of nature (the animal and plant world) is adapting to climate change and how maintaining or building nature’s resilience will increase our resilience too.
References
- ↑ Climate Refugees, n.d. The Gendered Impacts of Climate Displacement
- ↑ The Daily Star, n.d. / Adaptation to Climate Change: Need for a Human Rights Approach
- ↑ UNCHR, n.d. Refugees and Locals in Mauritania Exchange Strategies for Adapting to Climate Change
- ↑ Climate Refugees, n.d. Climate Refugees/Why?
