Published December 5, 2010
by iris_author
Last month IRIS released a report from the 2009 Ecojustice Conference which stated that the Global South is disproportionately affected by climate change. Although Northern countries are the main causes of climate change, it is our Southern counterparts that are dealing with the consequences. Climate change is resulting in droughts, floods, atypical weather events as well as other natural repercussions that are creating mass migrations that are certainly not by choice. This being said, these disasters are never solely natural; they are a combination of political, cultural and social interactions that affect communities like the South Pacific island of Tuvalu which will soon be under water.
The international community has not adequately prepared for the consequences of climate change. What will happen to the people of Tuvalu when they are forced to migrate? Currently the term climate refugees is contested. Many reject the word ‘refugee’ for victims of climate change because they do not fit into the rigid and strict 1951 United Nations Convention definition. Because these populations have not been persecuted in the traditional, political sense they do not fall under the jurisdiction of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which is the UN agency that handles all refugees with the exception of those originating in Palestine. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is a separate, specialized UN agency.
The international community needs to begin questioning and deciding what they are going to do with this mass influx of communities that are forced to migrate. Are they climate refugees? Stateless people? Simply migrants? Where are these people going to migrate to?
What Northern countries should really be asking themselves is: when are we going to take responsibility for our actions?
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