Climate Justice as a Foundation for Climate Migration Policy
(2015) MVEK02 20152Studies in Environmental Science
- Abstract
- This thesis aims to examine the relationship between climate justice and climate migration. The goal is to describe this relationship’s place in international policy making. Impacts from climate change will make certain areas of the world uninhabitable, inducing so-called “climate migration”. The number of migrants is predicted to be between 200 million and 250 million by 2050. Currently, there is no international law or mechanism that protects people displaced by climate change, something that is crucial in order to avoid a humanitarian disaster. Through a literary study of previous research a few of the proposals for forming international law concerning climate migrants that have been put forward will be outlined. The most frequently... (More)
- This thesis aims to examine the relationship between climate justice and climate migration. The goal is to describe this relationship’s place in international policy making. Impacts from climate change will make certain areas of the world uninhabitable, inducing so-called “climate migration”. The number of migrants is predicted to be between 200 million and 250 million by 2050. Currently, there is no international law or mechanism that protects people displaced by climate change, something that is crucial in order to avoid a humanitarian disaster. Through a literary study of previous research a few of the proposals for forming international law concerning climate migrants that have been put forward will be outlined. The most frequently brought up proposals are adding a separate section to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC), adding climate migrants to existing international laws on refugees or creating a new and separate treaty. When developing mechanisms for climate migration, a foundation in climate justice allows responsibility to be put on those who caused the problem. However, the concept of climate justice is not a set principle in international law, making it difficult to use as anything more than an argument if not a completely new treaty is drafted. By incorporating existing human rights law and treaties on climate change into climate migration mechanisms, a cohesive and just migration process where human well-being is in focus can be realized whilst the time-consuming process of creating an entirely new treaty is avoided. (Less)
- Popular Abstract
- Climate change will make certain parts of the planet uninhabitable, creating large migration flows. By 2050 the number of climate migrants is estimated to be between 200 million and 250 million, a number that is twenty times the total number of refugees in the world today. There is currently no international mechanism for handling this. A number of mechanisms have been proposed, however they are either additions to existing mechanisms or completely new, individual instruments.
Climate justice is a relatively new field within international climate change politics that approaches the issue of climate change by looking at factors connected to justice such as historical responsibility, level of development and vulnerability. Since climate... (More) - Climate change will make certain parts of the planet uninhabitable, creating large migration flows. By 2050 the number of climate migrants is estimated to be between 200 million and 250 million, a number that is twenty times the total number of refugees in the world today. There is currently no international mechanism for handling this. A number of mechanisms have been proposed, however they are either additions to existing mechanisms or completely new, individual instruments.
Climate justice is a relatively new field within international climate change politics that approaches the issue of climate change by looking at factors connected to justice such as historical responsibility, level of development and vulnerability. Since climate migration is to a large extent an ethical question, most of the nations hit hardest by climate change have contributed the very least, it is important to build solutions that incorporate the justice aspect. However, the concept of climate justice is not a set principle, which makes it hard to use to force countries into forming treaties. It can be used as an argument in the process of reaching a final agreement and if a completely new treaty is drafted climate justice could be used as a foundation. However, even though climate justice has its advantages, forming an entirely new treaty is time-consuming and the first climate migration is already on the doorstep. In order to facilitate the process for all affected parties and avoid a global crisis mechanisms need to be developed soon. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8244061
- author
- Häggström, Julia LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MVEK02 20152
- year
- 2015
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Climate change, Climate migration, Climate migrants, Climate refugees, Climate justice, Human Rights, International policy, International politics
- language
- English
- id
- 8244061
- date added to LUP
- 2015-12-01 15:04:21
- date last changed
- 2015-12-01 15:04:21
@misc{8244061,
abstract = {{This thesis aims to examine the relationship between climate justice and climate migration. The goal is to describe this relationship’s place in international policy making. Impacts from climate change will make certain areas of the world uninhabitable, inducing so-called “climate migration”. The number of migrants is predicted to be between 200 million and 250 million by 2050. Currently, there is no international law or mechanism that protects people displaced by climate change, something that is crucial in order to avoid a humanitarian disaster. Through a literary study of previous research a few of the proposals for forming international law concerning climate migrants that have been put forward will be outlined. The most frequently brought up proposals are adding a separate section to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC), adding climate migrants to existing international laws on refugees or creating a new and separate treaty. When developing mechanisms for climate migration, a foundation in climate justice allows responsibility to be put on those who caused the problem. However, the concept of climate justice is not a set principle in international law, making it difficult to use as anything more than an argument if not a completely new treaty is drafted. By incorporating existing human rights law and treaties on climate change into climate migration mechanisms, a cohesive and just migration process where human well-being is in focus can be realized whilst the time-consuming process of creating an entirely new treaty is avoided.}},
author = {{Häggström, Julia}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Climate Justice as a Foundation for Climate Migration Policy}},
year = {{2015}},
}