Human displacement has already been triggered

Greater efforts are needed beyond Copenhagen to tackle the complex issue of environmental and climate-induced migration, says the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as it marked International Migrants Day.

As world leaders attended the final day of the UN's Climate Change Conference in the Danish capital to consider signing up to a global deal, the reality is that climate change and environmental degradation are already triggering migration or displacement all over the planet. In particular, it is the world's poorest countries that are bearing the brunt.

Major gaps in knowledge and understanding exist on how best to deal with the many complex repercussions of environmental migration.

IOM Director General William Lacy Swing, says: “No-one really knows just how many people are already migrating voluntarily or are forced to do so because of climate change or environmental degradation. What we now know is much of this migration is largely internal or cross-border and that it is a growing trend," says.

Growing migration pressures resulting from the effects of climate change add to the urgency of tacking existing challenges of migration management.

A recently published IOM report states that most migration already occurring as a result of environmental factors is internal. Several Asian countries, for example, are struggling to cope with the mass of rural-urban migration as recurrent floods destroy agricultural livelihoods and supplies and force people to move to over-stretched urban areas, with dramatic consequences for infrastructure, public services and health.

Slow-onset environmental degradation generates less attention than extreme climatic events such as floods and storms, yet globally 1.6 million people were affected by droughts between 1979 and 2008, more than double the number affected by storms, with Africa especially vulnerable.

Swing concludes: “Climate change, demographic trends and globalization all point to more migration in the future. This means that the well-being of even more people and communities will be subject to our ability to manage migration in a way that increases the benefits and opportunities and reduces suffering.

“The effects of climate change will be an increasingly important variable in this equation. We need to think ahead and plan for change; we need to come up with integrated solutions that link migration and climate change adaptation; and we need to be prepared to respond to the humanitarian challenges that climate change is already posing today.”

More information: www.iom.int/