Climate Change, Extreme Events and Human Mobility in Latin America: Exploring the Links Through National Laws and Policies

Abstract

The article focuses on the impact of climate change and extreme events on human mobility in Latin America, verifying to what extent and by what means climate national law and policy strategies have incorporated (or not) the human mobility dimension, contributing to the reduction, prevention and better management of the risks and impacts of climate extreme events. The relevance of this aim is justified by the ability to illustrate whether national climate strategies integrate human mobility and are aligned with international guidelines and recommendations on this issue, thereby also leading to the identification of existing gaps and inconsistencies. Relations between quality and availability of reliable data on climate induced human mobility and the level of awareness of the phenomenon and its integration into climate strategies are considered. Latin America was chosen as the research subject because it is one of the most vulnerable regions to the effects of climate change and exposure to extreme events that have impacted human mobility, and the previous experience and research carried out by RESAMA in the region.