Already more than 30 million people flee their villages, regions or countries every year because of climate change. By 2050, it’s estimated there will be between 200 million and 1 billion climate refugees. As extreme weather threatens the lives of hundreds of millions of people, how can the world best respond?
Faced with these migrations, the international community seems incapable of agreeing on defining new protection and compensation. Currently there is no clear definition of a ‘climate refugee’, and climate refugees are not covered by the 1951 Refugee Convention. The spectre of waves of unrestrained migration is brandished for populist purposes to justify the locking of borders.
But, in the absence of a global response, the countries and regions most affected by the climate change/migration problem are taking the initiative.
We explore these challenges through the prism of individual human stories and innovative initiatives in Asia, the Pacific and Latin America. In the long term, they could become models, well beyond their borders.