Governance of climate displacement within the UN climate regime

Abstract

This chapter explores how the UN Climate Regime governs climate displacement. One of the gravest injustices of climate change is the distribution of negative impacts upon the poor and vulnerable in society. It is fundamentally unjust that people who are most likely to be displaced by climate change are the ones that have contributed least to global emissions. Such innocent people stand to lose their home, their connections with land, community, language and family and face the challenge of starting life again in a foreign place with a potential hostile reception from host communities. As such it has been recognised that climate displacement is a multifaceted challenge which has generated debate about the most appropriate international institution to respond to this issue. Rather than revisiting the merits and pitfalls of international environmental, human rights and refugee law regimes to deal with climate displacement, this chapter will instead explore how the UN Climate regime has responded to the issue. It is argued that the UN Climate regime will be play a critical role in assisting those displaced by climate change for two reasons. Firstly, the UN Climate regime can create a moral argument on the basis of historical and current emissions contributions as to why Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) must assist those must vulnerable to climate change. Secondly, the UN Climate regime has the ability to generate financial assistance, separate and additional from any other existing international funds for displaced/refugee populations. The UN Climate regime therefore plays a key role in governing climate displacement by recognising the moral issues associated with excessive greenhouse gas emissions and by providing a governance structure to provide financial and other support to those displaced by climate change.