IOM: Finding solutions for climate and environment-induced migration
Mexico - As the UN's Climate Change Conference in the Mexican city of Cancun reaches a critical point, questions on what concrete steps can be taken and by whom to address the many challenges of climate and environment induced-migration will be tackled by IOM and partners of the Climate Change, Environment and Migration Alliance (CCEMA) on Wednesday 8 December.
IOM Director General William Lacy Swing will moderate an event taking place on the sidelines of the Climate Conference. Dr. Hasan Mahmud, Bangladesh Minster for Environment and Forests will deliver a keynote speech with other speakers including Professor Konrad Osterwalder, Rector of the UN University (UNU), Dr. Thomas Loster, Chairman of the Munich Re Foundation and Jose-Miguel Guzman, Chief of the Population and Development Branch of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).
Although there are no reliable estimates on climate and environment-induced migration, it is clear that this type of human movement will increase significantly in the foreseeable future as the effects of climate change bite more deeply, according to IOM's recently published World Migration Report 2010. Less developed countries are already bearing the brunt of climate and environmental migration and will experience more of it in the next decades, mostly within their own borders.
Demographics could also play a role in this type of migration. An example, the report cites, is the Middle East and North Africa where environmental degradation will reduce the amount of fertile arable land, compounding a shortage of employment among a rapidly expanding youthful population. As a result, people may have to leave to look for work in a world where there are few legal opportunities to migrate.
Key to tackling the complex and unpredictable impacts of environmental migration could be a range of steps including the establishment of a global database on this type of movement. It would provide a better evidence base on which governments could formulate policies and responses.
Reducing the risks from natural disasters, drawing up evacuation plans, for more countries to develop and implement national adaption plans that lessen their vulnerability to climate change as well as strengthening national laws and policies on internal displacement are other measures that could also mitigate the more negative impacts of climate change on migration. They would also make an immediate difference to affected populations, including the most vulnerable groups.
The event in Cancun organised by IOM and UNU in association with Munich Re Foundation and UNFPA, is part of CCEMA efforts to bring migration into the climate change, environment and development agendas. CCEMA was set up in the acknowledgement that the unprecedented challenges that environmental migration poses requires an innovative partnership. CCEMA members so far include IOM, UNEP, UNU, Munich Re Foundation, UNOCHA, the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), the University of Sussex, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the International and the Global Climate Adaptation Partnership (GCAP).
For further information, please contact:
Niurka Pineiro in Cancun
Tel: +1 212 684 0559
E-mail: [email protected]