CLIMATE DISPLACEMENT IN THE NEWS
Increasingly the Catholic Church has taken steps to highlight to world leaders the plight of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. As we noted in a previous Spotlight article, Pope Francis created and presides over a migrants and refugees section of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, in order to lead initiatives for the millions forcibly displaced by war, natural disasters and climate change.
CBS’ long-running television newsmagazine Sunday Morning covered climate displacement in a segment during last week’s broadcast, asking whether there may be a perfect place to live in the US for those concerned about sea level rise and other climate threats. While the segment makes a few interesting and important points, it ultimately misses the mark and fails to meaningfully contribute to the discourse around climate change and human mobility.
Bangladesh’s Minister of Foreign Affairs AK Abdul Momen says his country requires “effective and proactive” support from the international community to address the Rohingya crisis as well as climate-related displacement, an important reminder to the international community that it bears responsibility for protecting migrants wherever they may reside.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies report over 4.3 million Central Americans - including 3 million Hondurans - have been impacted by Hurricane Eta alone, which struck Nicaragua on November 3rd. Those numbers rose when Hurricane Iota struck two weeks later, again in Nicaragua on November 16th.
The Red Cross America’s division described conditions as a "triple emergency” in Honduras and Guatemala of: hurricane Eta, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the years-long drought that has deeply impacted agriculture, making even subsistence agriculture, impossible across large sections of the region. The Red Cross says it is now readying for internal displacement, as well as migration across borders, as a result.
The strongest storm the world has seen in four years made landfall in the Philippines on Sunday, devastating Catanduanes Island before moving on to Luzon, the nation’s most populous island. Evacuations may have helped to keep the death toll low, but are nearly 400,000, most of whom are now living in temporary storm shelters. This has raised serious concerns over the spread of COVID-19 in a country already experiencing one of the worst outbreaks in the Asia-Pacific region with cases now over 389,000.
While the Philippines is no stranger to typhoons, reeling from two others in two weeks before Goni, the combination of the pandemic and worsening storms due to climate change has created a very difficult situation for which the country was not adequately prepared.
As the BBC reports, some local officials had already depleted their disaster relief funds trying to combat the pandemic, and evacuation efforts faced challenges in dealing with COVID patients. Indeed, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned that “the most vulnerable displaced populations have become even more vulnerable.” Close quarters at evacuation shelters and the closure of at least one region’s testing center due to storm damage does indeed leave many in a precarious situation, especially groups like women and girls, who’s safety in temporary shelter requires special attention from authorities.
Even if the unfortunate situation facing some local governments’ emergency relief funds were not completely avoidable, Goni’s severity is yet another reminder that the Philippines is not adequately prepared for the impacts of climate change. As the Smithsonian Magazine reports, rising ocean temperatures will subject the Philippines to more frequent and stronger storms, with natural barriers like mangrove forests, dangerously deforested in recent years.
With an end to the global pandemic nowhere in sight, leaders in the Philippines face an urgent task. Adapting to the realities of climate change now must be a top priority for a country that is particularly vulnerable to severe weather, but policies must go beyond preparing for the next typhoon. Implementing better disaster warning systems and climate adaption such as improving infrastructure, and as it relates to evacuation, are two important strategies for limiting the impact of future storms. Unfortunately, Goni may be just the beginning of a destructive season for the Philippines and its neighbors. Humanitarian groups are rightly concerned about the onset of La Nina season, which is likely to bring higher than normal rainfall, with the potential for landslides and flooding, and even more displacement. (Smithsonian Magazine, BBC News, UN News)
Dave Hoefler via UNSPLASH
The Australian government has been advised to create a new visa category to allow Pacific Islanders to relocate permanently to Australia in order to mitigate the impact of climate change. The recommendation was detailed in a recent policy paper published by the University of New South Wales’(UNSW) Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law.
The report’s authors Jane McAdam and Jonathan Pryke argue that adaptation alone is insufficient in the case of the many Pacific islands threatened by increasingly frequent and severe weather events as a result of climate change. They also stress that the proposed 3,000-per-year relocation target is far from radical, representing just a “drop in the ocean” in terms of displaced persons.
"If you look at where the trajectory is, unless you have major changes in mitigation and adaptation efforts, we're likely to see more displacement occurring." - Jane McAdam
According to reports, Jonathan Pryke thinks “relocating even a small number of people on a voluntary basis would help ease pressure on vulnerable countries.”
Australia’s Department of Home Affairs declined to respond to a question posed by Australia’s national broadcaster regarding a new visa scheme, instead offering a generic commitment to existing migration pathways open to Pacific Islanders.
This UNSW policy paper involves many important issues, but perhaps the most obvious is its timely reminder that dealing with the impacts of climate change requires a multifaceted approach. While mitigation efforts, such as emissions reduction, are important, the impacts of climate change are severe enough to require adaptation as well, especially in small-island states. Policy recommendations like the UNSW report’s proposed visa scheme must be pursued alongside mitigation strategies if we are serious about addressing the climate crisis.
Despite activists and policymakers discussing relocation of Pacific Islanders for at least a decade, the current government’s record of inaction is not reassuring. When bushfires raged across New South Wales and Queensland in last December, scientists said they were “bewildered” by the lack of focus on the climate crisis by politicians. This was over a year after a joint Medical Journal of Australia-Lancet report warned that Australian inaction on climate change was a public health threat. (ABC News - Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
