Climate Refugees

People forced from their homes and land by deteriorating environmental conditions linked to climate change. Conditions like creeping desertification, flooding, rising sea levels and more intense extreme weather events. Some will be forced to leave temporarily, others permanently.

The majority will be among the planet's poorest and most vulnerable people. People who have contributed the least to climate change, yet will feel its greatest impacts. These will be the first victims of our failure to prevent worst-case scenarios of future climate change. People who, without international help and new binding agreements, will have nowhere to go and no means to survive.

EJF is working towards establishing such an instrument, either as part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) or as a stand-alone Convention.

Such a new legally-binding agreement must, as a basic requirement, include:

• Planned and voluntary resettlement and reintegration (as opposed to ad hoc emergency relief responses);
  
• Climate refugees to be given the same treatment as permanent immigrants, as they cannot return to their home;
  
• Tailoring to anyone from individuals to entire nations;
  
• Support for national governments to protect their people (as opposed to the existing refugee regime);
  
• The founding concept that displacement due to climate change is global problem and a global responsibility.
  

Putting the call to governments and our political leaders for a new agreement on environmental refugees, guaranteeing them rights and assistance and a fair claim to our shared world.

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