A Global Migration Framework Under Water: How Can the International Community Protect Climate Refugees?

Abstract

Climate disaster events are expected to displace at least 1.2 billion people by 2050. However, “climate refugees,” or individuals displaced in the context of disasters and climate change, lack international legal recognition and protection. In 2020, an international tribunal acknowledged in a landmark decision that deportation to a place where climate change would put an individual’s life at risk may violate certain provisions of international human rights law. Yet, the tribunal failed to formally recognize climate refugees or provide recommendations for their protection, perpetuating a “legal void” in the global migration framework. This Essay examines how existing provisions of refugee law, international human rights law, and international environmental law could be expanded to fill this void that legal scholarship has not directly addressed. Changes to refugee law — including an expansion of the current definition of a refugee under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, modeled on examples from existing regional agreements — are the strongest potential solutions to address the plight of climate refugees. This Essay provides a comprehensive and timely legal response to a humanitarian crisis set to become a defining issue of our time.

Keywords: sustainability, sustainable, climate, climate change, refugee, immigrant, asylum, migration, displace, equitable, development, human rights, humanitarian, convention, protocol, policy, government, law, legal, international, global, border, protect, protection, disaster, recognition, cooperation

JEL Classification: F22, H4, H5, I1, I2, I3, J6, J61, L31, L9, N3, N4, N5, N7, N9, O15, Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5