Author: Earth Refuge

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Australian Court Ruled the Government Has ‘Duty of Care’ to Protect Young People From Climate Crisis

aerial view of rock cliffs under cloudy sky

3 August 2021 – by Evelyn Workman

In June 2021, the Australian Federal Court has ruled that the environment minister Sussan Ley has a duty of care to protect young people from the impacts of climate change. A group of young Australians had sought an injunction to prevent Ley from approving a possible Whitehaven coal mine extension project in the state of New South Wales. The young people argued that the minister had a common duty of care to protect young people from the harm caused by climate change, and that approval of the project would breach this by endangering their future.

Judge Mordecai Bromberg ruled that Ley owes a duty of care to Australia’s young people not to cause them physical harm from future climate change. However, he did not grant the injunction because he had “not been satisfied that a reasonable apprehension of breach of the duty of care by the minister has been established”. This means that Ley does not have to prohibit the coal mine extension project, however, her responsibility to young people has now been formally recognised in court.

The court heard the expansion of the mine could lead to an extra 100m tonnes of CO2 being released into the atmosphere, which will only contribute towards an accelerated rate of global warming. The court was also presented with scientific evidence from bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Bureau of Meteorology highlighting the potential harm Australian children could face in the future due to climate change. One million of today’s children in Australia are expected to suffer a heat-stress episode requiring hospitalisation within their lifetimes, substantial economic losses will be experienced, and the Great Barrier Reef and most of Australia’s eastern eucalypt forests will not exist when today’s children grow up. 

The group of young people who brought the case to court was led by 16-year-old Melbourne student Anj Sharma and supported by Sister Brigid Arthur, an 86-year-old nun who was appointed to be their litigation guardian. One member of the group, 17-year-old Ava Princi said, “I am thrilled because this is a landmark decision. My future and the future of all young people depends on Australia stepping away from fossil fuel projects and joining the world in taking decisive climate action.” Even though the injunction was not granted, Princi said, “it is not over yet”.

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EPA Delivers on Biden’s Promise of Environmental Justice

tree trunk

26 July 2021 – by Ben St. Laurent

Less than a month after his inauguration President Biden signed an executive order — “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad” which strengthened the inter-agency integration on climate and environmental policy. A key component of this ‘whole of government’ approach to climate change was to address disproportionate environmental impacts to economically disadvantaged and minority communities. On June 25th the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the allocation of $50 million under the American Rescue Plan to fund environmental justice initiatives, fulfilling President Biden’s commitment to address the racial and socio-economic disparities of environmental hazards. 

Alongside The EPA’s $50 million grant for environmental justice, EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan announced $200,000 in federal grant funding for a job training initiative in Baltimore, Maryland which prepares young adults for jobs in the water treatment industry. The recipient, YH2O, is a city-sponsored initiative that combines aspects of economic, environmental, and social development and could provide a rubric for environmental justice initiatives in other underserved communities. According to the EPA, 13 other environmental justice projects around the country have been awarded a combined $2.8 million in grants, and nearly $14 million has been allocated for future projects. The EPA has also set aside just over $5 million to “expand civil and criminal enforcement” of air and drinking water pollution near low-income communities. 

Cities like Flint, Michigan with high levels of poverty and pollution stand to benefit from such programs. In 2014, insufficient oversight and monitoring led to at least a dozen deaths and thousands of cases of serious health problems after the city’s drinking supply was severely contaminated with lead and bacteria. Due to weak law enforcement and legal recourse, residents of Flint who struggled for years to gain access to safe drinking water, are still fighting for justice. Increased public understanding and environmental literacy combined with stronger legal enforcement of monitoring standards, which the EPA is now funding, could prevent similar disasters from occurring. The EPA’s announcement of funding for environmental justice initiatives, and the apparent scope of its impact, should raise the bar for environmental protection and social development of historically underserved communities across the country.

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How is the Biden Administration Handling the Climate Migration Crisis in Central America?

forest and mountain partially covered with fog

16 July 2021 – by Flora Bensadon

In November 2020, Central America was hit with not one, but two, devastating hurricanes: Eta and Iota, which caused extensive damage across Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Panama. Following these disasters, The Franciscan Network for Migrants reported that approximately 34 people emigrate every hour from Guatemala and Honduras because of climate-related reasons. By 2050, the World Bank estimates that 1.4 million people in Mexico and Central America could migrate due to the consequences of climate change.

Eta and Iota were recorded as Category 4 hurricanes, and two of the most intense storms in the region’s history. The severe winds and devastating floods affected six million people, and caused the displacement of nearly 600,000 people in Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Little government assistance was given, meaning that up to 250,000 people were still in emergency shelters in January 2021. Eta and Iota destroyed people’s houses but also significantly impacted employment in the region. For instance, in Honduras, the agricultural sector provided for one-third of the country’s employment but 80% of this employment was destroyed by the storms. 

President Biden’s Executive Order

In light of the clear acceleration of climate migration, President Biden signed an executive order in February 2021 on “Rebuilding and Enhancing Programs to Resettle Refugees and Planning for the Impact of Climate Change on Migration”. Federal agencies were to submit reports on climate change and its impact on migration, including a discussion on the implications of climate-related migration on international security, and a plan for protection and resettlement of those displaced due to climate change.

While this first step is an important one, as of now climate migrants do not have clear international protection. Under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, refugees are recognized as individuals outside their home country because they face persecution based on race, religion, nationality, or political opinion. As such, this definition does not include climate refugees – they are therefore being denied international protection. Biden’s executive order is a promising initial step, but the administration needs to go further. The United States (U.S.) is responsible for the largest share of heat-trapping fossil fuel emissions. These fossil fuel emissions are a large contributing cause of climate migration, so it is now crucial for the administration to include climate migrants in its migration policies. 

Kamala Harris Disregards Climate Migration

In June 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris held a press conference with Guatemalan President, Alejandro Giammattei. She discussed the President’s plan to moderate migration at the southern border, and designated corruption and human trafficking as the most pressing causes of migration to the U.S. from Central America. Her visit to Guatemala came a few months after Hurricanes Eta and Iota, and President Biden’s executive order. Yet, Harris failed to acknowledge climate change as the biggest cause for migration in 2020. 

The administration plans to tackle migration by investing $4 billion to “build security and prosperity” in Central America. This investment will be used to stimulate the region’s economy and to tackle corruption. Once again, this plan could help in the short term, but it fails to acknowledge more pressing matters that need to be dealt with in the long term, such as the effect of increasing global temperatures, rising sea levels, or severe weather events displacing millions of people. It seems futile for the Biden administration to invest a large sum of money to stimulate the economies of these countries without acknowledging the fact that their populations are already migrating due to climate change. The U.S. continues to fund fossil fuel projects in the Global South – from which a majority of climate migrants will be fleeing in the next 30 years – when its priority should be protecting those who have already fled. 

It is crucial that now, more than ever, governments and international institutions change their policies to include climate migrants. Today, we witness the acceleration of climate change and the mass migration that it causes. This is no longer a problem for the future – it has already begun. With the COP26 taking place this November, governments must go beyond solely discussing climate migration. It is time to act and provide adequate international protection to the victims of human-caused climate change.

Flora Bensadon holds a degree in History and International Development Degree from McGill University. Through her studies, her culturally diverse background and her travels, Flora has taken a profound interest in the problems of migration, specifically those of climate refugees.

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Violence Against Women and Girls in the Aftermath of Climate Disasters

gray concrete road between brown trees under blue sky during daytime

15 July 2021 – by Atoosa Gitiforoz

Post disaster violence against women and girls (VAWG) increases due to the exacerbation of pre-existing gender inequalities, failures of law enforcement and exposure to high-risk environments. 

Gender-sensitive risk reduction policies and the inclusion of women in disaster management are crucial measures in reducing post disaster VAWG and in treating health consequences of climate disasters that primarily impact women. 

‘Women and girls bear a disproportionate burden of disaster-related impacts’. Mortality rates are higher for women than men – in the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone, 90% of deaths were women. The exacerbation of VAWG includes intimate partner violence, sexual violence, female genital mutilation, honour killings and human trafficking. For example, the 2011 Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand saw a 40 per cent increase in levels of rape in rural areas. In Australia, VAWG is five times higher in households impacted by bushfires.

Economic insecurity following climate disasters is another factor that increases VAWG. Following the disaster in Haiti, poverty lead to men looting homes and attacking women. South Asian countries also see higher rates of child marriage as a result of post-disaster poverty. Prolonged reconstruction of people’s homes, that leave people displaced in camps and shelters, also leads to women and girls being left at a heightened risk of violence. Poor law enforcement in temporary shelters and camps also allow VAWG to happen with little to no consequences for perpetrators. 

VAWG as a public health issue and disaster management concern needs to be addressed within policy making, planning and practice. The absence of women’s perspectives in disaster management increases the risk of post-disaster VAWG. Whilst the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 has pledged to be gender inclusive in policy, strategy and practice, the inclusion of women in disaster management on local levels is also needed.

Studies that look at the relationship between long-term climate related damage to environments and VAWG are necessary to understand the more nuanced consequences of environmental degradation.

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Record Number of People Internally Displaced Due to Extreme Weather Events in 2020

ocean wave

12 July 2021 – by Evelyn Workman

Extreme weather events displaced three times as many people as violent conflicts in 2020, according to figures published in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). The report studies the number of displacements happening within borders each year. 

The report, which is released annually, studies the number of displacements happening within borders each year. It reported that there were at least 40 million new internal displacements recorded last year, which is the highest annual figure in 10 years. 30 million of these displacements were the result of natural disasters, such as floods and storms. The other 10 million new displacements were driven by violence and conflict. The figures refer to the total number of times people were forced to flee, rather than the overall number of people.

The report found that 80% of people forced from their homes in 2020 were in Africa and Asia. In Africa most new displacements were due to conflict. Violence in countries such as Burkina Faso and Mozambique and new wars erupting in countries like Ethiopia have caused 6.8 million displacements in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, heavy rainfall brought flooding and crop damage to countries already affected by violence, such as Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan and Niger, forcing people who were already displaced to flee again, according to the report. Extreme weather related disasters of this nature resulted in 4.3 million displacements in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2020. 

In Asia, most displacement was caused by extreme weather events. For example, Cyclone Amphan triggered around five million displacements across Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Myanmar. The Atlantic hurricane season was also the most active on record last year, and included Hurricanes Eta and Iota which wreaked havoc across Central America, causing many people to flee coastal areas where damage was the greatest. 

The climate crisis is expected to displace more people in the future due to extreme weather events, and longer-term climate related consequences such as crop failure. It is understood that a warming climate is exacerbating extreme weather events by making them occur more frequently and more intensely. The IDMC report stated, “Every year, millions of people are forced to flee their homes because of conflict and violence. Disasters and the effects of climate change regularly trigger new and secondary displacement, undermining people’s security and wellbeing. The scale of displacement worldwide is increasing, and most of it is happening within countries’ borders.”

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Sustainable Climate Migration Strategy Could Bolster Global Agricultural Production

selective focus photo of wheat field

8 July 2021 – by Ben St. Laurent

The latest research indicates that climate change could put a third of global food production at risk under high emission scenarios. According to this report, “[t]he most vulnerable areas are the ones at risk of leaving [Safe Climate Spaces] with low resilience to cope with the change, particularly South and Southeast Asia and Africa’s Sudano-Sahelian Zone. The Sudano-Sahelian Zone is a bioclimatic belt extending from the southern edge of the Sahara Desert into the Sub-Saharan savannahs of many African countries. In Ghana, worsening climatic conditions have already displaced many agricultural workers from the Sudano-Sahelian Zone in Ghana’s Upper West Region. The Water & Development Research Group at Aalto University indicated that these trends in agricultural migration, if planned for sustainably, could provide a solution to potential decreases in crop yields.

A study published in Nature Communications expands on the concept of ‘crop migration’ —  whereby agricultural workers migrate to more suitable areas for cultivation, which mitigates damaging impacts of climate change on crop yield. But when unplanned, climate displacement creates refugees prone to higher rates of unemployment, homelessness, and poverty. The researchers conclude that crop migration is substantially responsible for maintaining crop yields in the face of changes to the climate sustained over the past few decades. But they warn that “continued migration may incur substantial environmental costs and will depend on socio-economic and political factors in addition to land suitability and climate.” 

Current projections indicate that climate change is likely to raise global temperatures above the 2°C goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, climate change will have differing effects on agriculture in various regions. Shifts in the winemaking industry illustrate this phenomenon clearly. While grape cultivation is expanding to include regions that have historically been too cold, vineyards in California and Australia have been devastated by wildfires which have displaced agricultural workers. While crop migration can help maintain current levels of agricultural production, the lack of supportive policy leads to unsustainable outcomes for migrants. Without such policies, current trends in crop migration could collapse, resulting in more climate refugees and reduced global agricultural production.

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Droughts to Dry up Afghanistan Once Again

brown and white mountains during daytime

5 July 2021 – by Atoosa Gitiforoz

Warnings of drought come amid escalating conflict ahead of the withdrawal of US troops and NATO forces. Coronavirus has also worsened an already poor health system where over a third of the population experiences food insecurity, rising prices and unemployment. 

In 2018, a drought caused 250,000 people to flee their homes. The slow aid response meant it was only until the government declared drought, action was taken. West Afghanistan saw families flee to areas outside Herat City, where thousands still remain displaced. This coming drought is expected to bring below-average wheat harvest and adverse impacts on livestock.

Aid groups say that they are better prepared for this drought – humanitarian groups have a plan that includes food and cash aid, support for livestock and water wells. However, ‘according to international forecast models, average precipitation and above-average temperature conditions are expected from June to August 2021.’  Donor funds are also stretched across the globe. Only 12% of the funding required for the 2021 Humanitarian Response Plan has been received.

Afghanistan will need significant humanitarian support for the foreseeable future across many areas. Heat waves and more droughts are expected in Afghanistan as temperatures rise. Climate change is likely to push the aid sector to act more pre-emptively.

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Researcher Dr. Donald Kingsbury on Extraction and Carbon Capitalism

2 July 2021 – conducted by Samantha Quadros

In this interview, Dr. Donald Kingsbury dives into his research on energy transitions and carbon capitalism with Earth Refuge Correspondent Samantha Quadros. Dr. Kingsbury saw how his community, located in the rust belt of the United States, was being affected by economic restructuring and NAFTA, which inspired him to look more closely into the social, cultural and political structures that facilitate resource extraction in Latin America. During his time in Venezuela working with social movements, he came to realise how deep the extraction of resources, ie. oil, underwrites political economy and social identity. Adopting lithium and water extraction as an example, Dr. Kingsbury explores the nuanced intersections between climate change, displacement and inequalities in the extraction sphere.

You can also listen to the podcast version of this interview on our Earth Refuge Spotify:

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Policy and Legal Advice on Climate Refugees From the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers

landscape photography of snowy mountains

28 June 2021 – by Hazal Yilmaz

The Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL) is preparing a report parallel to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Canada’s invitation for the federal government to examine its own laws with relation to climate change and migration. In their view, Canada is not paying due attention to the impending crisis.

In a podcast, which discussed the report, different solutions were explored. For example, it was argued that climate refugees are in fact no different from those who can get refugee status by escaping from persecution based on race, religion and political opinion; and that on this ground, no disparate treatment is necessary. Or another point was raised, that climate migrants could fall under the existing category of those applying for residency in a foreign country, after a natural disaster made their previous residence uninhabitable. It was also stated in the report that Canada’s sponsorship program for Syrian refugees could be utilized and adapted to leave room for those fleeing climate change.

The authors of the report hope that the proposed reinterpretation of exisiting regulations will be met with support from the Canadian public.

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Pacific Island States: Does the Future of Global Climate Displacement Lie in the Present?

green and black mountain beside body of water during daytime

24 June 2021 – by Nikunj Bhimsaria

Amid ongoing global debate around the definition, classification, and treatment of ‘climate migrants’, little attention is paid to what the people affected want. 1 There have been multiple reports with varying estimates of the number of people expected to be displaced due to climate change by 2050. 2,3 The common link featured in these reports, however, is that the majority of climate displacement is and will be internal. People around the world will be forced to relocate within their own countries to escape the slow onset impacts of climate change. Even in the face of uninhabitable conditions, people are generally unwilling to leave their homes and relocate to foreign lands. So, in addition to arguing over cross-border arrangements, countries ought to come up with inward-looking strategies to deal with climate-induced displacement.

One needs to look no further than the island states in the Pacific as examples. These small island nations are more vulnerable to the acute effects of climate change than any other region in the world. 4 Sea-level rise, amongst other climatic changes, is threatening the existence of these geographically isolated and small landmasses. Kiribati, which rises no more than two meters above sea-level at its highest point, is one such island state. A 2016 United Nations report has shown that half of the households have already been affected by sea-level rise on one of Kiribati’s constituent islands. 5 In neighboring Tuvalu, a UNU-EHS study found that 97% of surveyed households had been impacted by natural hazards between the period 2005 and 2015, yet only 53% of the people affected believed that they would be able to afford migration in the future. 6

Despite the above, people of these nations have been unwilling to leave their homes, families, and lives. New Zealand’s Pacific Access Ballot, an annual lottery which selects people from five Pacific countries for New Zealand residency each year, has repeatedly had quotas go unfulfilled. 7 The governments of these islands are trying to build adaptive capacity and employ migration as a means of improving the quality of life. The Kiribati government has implemented a program, entitled ‘Migration with Dignity’, which aims to create a skilled workforce that can find decent employment abroad. In 2014, the government also purchased 6,000 acres in Fiji to try and ensure food security whilst the environment changes. 8 With support from the Green Climate Fund, the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project will enhance resilience to coastal hazards on some of the nation’s islands. 9

These measures might not be enough, but they are better than simply waiting for other countries to help. As Kiribati President, Taneti Maamau said: “We are telling the world that climate change impacts Kiribati, it’s really happening… But we are not telling people to leave.” 8 Rather than simply focusing on relocation – an option that does not support true self-determination for the affected people – international policy should provide adaptive capacity and long-term support to these island states. Many engineering options are available, such as coastal fortification, and land reclamation technologies. It is imperative, therefore, for developed countries to voluntarily adopt these measures before they are forced to do so.

Nikunj is a consultant currently working for a climate focused philanthropy. In the past, he has worked as a business strategy consultant across various sectors and has also volunteered for various non-profits. His undergraduate background is in Engineering from BITS Pilani. Interested in human-environmental ecosystems and how they adapt to climate change, Nikunj has been part of various climate adaptation projects.

References

[1] The Refugees The World Barely Pays Attention To, Tim McDonnell (Link)

[2] Groundswell: Preparing for Internal Climate Migration, World Bank (Link)

[3] Migration and Climate Change, IOM (Link)

[4] Climate Change and the Sinking Island States in the Pacific, Saber Salem (Link)

[5] Kiribati: Climate change and migration, Oakes, R., Milan, A., and Campbell J. (Link)

[6] Pacific Islanders Faced with Migration Can Benefit from Paris Agreement, UNFCCC Newsroom (Link)

[7] NZ Immigration launches annual Pacific Access, RNZ (Link)

[8] An Island Nation Turns Away from Climate Migration, Despite Rising Seas, Ben Walker (Link)

[9] Climate Change and Tuvalu (Link)