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Migration: Adaptation to climate change or failure to adapt?

“Advancing human security through knowledge-based approaches to reducing vulnerability and environmental risks “. Migration: Adaptation to climate change or failure to adapt? Findings from a global empirical study Dr. Koko Warner Section Head, Environmental Migration and Adaptation UNU-EHS

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Migration: Adaptation to climate change or failure to adapt?

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  1. “Advancing human security through knowledge-based approaches to reducing vulnerability and environmental risks“ Copenhagen Climate Congress 10-12 March 2009

  2. Migration: Adaptation to climate change or failure to adapt? Findings from a global empirical study Dr. Koko WarnerSection Head, Environmental Migration and Adaptation UNU-EHS Bonn, Germany Copenhagen Climate Congress 10-12 March 2009

  3. Does climate change affect human mobility including migration? • 2 issues on global agenda, discussed separately • Climate change and environmental degradation • Migration • Are they linked? Yes…the key is to understand how. • How many will migrate?Where are they coming from?Where are they heading to? • Present scientific and political perceptions of the climate change & human security challenge Less developed regions are especially vulnerable to impacts of environmental change (IPCC 4th Comprehensive Report 2007) „Climate change has serious implications on international peace and security, including migration.“ (UN General Assembly Thematic Debate, 11-12 Feb. 2008) Copenhagen Climate Congress 10-12 March 2009

  4. Climate change and human movement: Framing the issue • How many environmentally induced migrants? • Today: 24 million environmentally induced migrants worldwide (UNHCR 2002). • By 2010: 50 million (Myers 2005) • By 2050: Estimates vary widely, 200 million becoming a widely cited estimate (IOM 2008) • After 2050: Up to 700 million environmental migrants (Christian Aid 2007) Environmental factors are part of complex patterns of multiple causality — closely linked to economic, social and political factors in driving migration Significant uncertainties warrant more research! Copenhagen Climate Congress 10-12 March 2009

  5. Sea level rise of 1 meter & population distribution Copenhagen Climate Congress 10-12 March 2009

  6. Environmental change & migration: Hotspots & Trajectories(WGBU 2007) Is this enough information to assess climate change & migration / displacement? Main trajectories Copenhagen Climate Congress 10-12 March 2009 Source: WGBU 2007 (modified)

  7. Empirical research • Need for empirical research • prompted European Commission to sponsor a first-time ever global scoping study of environmental change and forced migration scenarios ( , www.each-for.eu) • 23 case studies investigate migrant characteristics and origins, links with environmental change and coping capacity to climate change Copenhagen Climate Congress 10-12 March 2009

  8. 23 cases worldwide investigating environmentally induced migration, n = 1035 Copenhagen Climate Congress 10-12 March 2009

  9. Empirical findings • Links with environmental change: Environmental factors currently contribute to migration • Livelihoods dependent on environment most sensitive to climate changes • No ‘one-size-fits-all’ model of environmental migration • Border between forced and voluntary migration increasingly blurred • Mass migration triggered by env. reasons could occur when ecosystems change irreversibly (thresholds passed) • Migrant characteristics: Vulnerability profile of environmentally induced migrants • Younger, older, gendered, poorer people more sensitive to environmental change (constrained coping options) – how far can they afford to move? • Internal migration and resettlement • Coping capacity vis-a-vis climate change • Surveys in all case study countries indicated that households expect migration will become an option in the future if environmental conditions worsen • Migration both a coping strategy and flight, adaptation and extreme adaptation • „Migration as adaptation“ option politically challenging • „Migration as extreme adaptation“ challenges humanitarian response capacity Copenhagen Climate Congress 10-12 March 2009

  10. Adaptation or Failure to Adapt? • Current policy discourse on CC and migration • Genuine concern about the human consequences • Also driven by underlying institutional interests • Empirical evidence • Relationships between environmental change and migration, variety of patterns and contexts • Knowledge base remains limited, more questions than answers • Indicators of adaptation or failure to adapt: • Adaptation: orderly, peaceful, new livelihoods possible, environmental conditions in receiving areas remain stable • Failure to adapt: chaotic, conflictual, humanitarian crisis, worsening environmental conditions • Governance and management of migration key • System transformation (climate change, societal, technological, economic, political) • Existing strategies will work partially, but new governance modes also needed Copenhagen Climate Congress 10-12 March 2009

  11. Thank you! Dr. Koko Warner warner@ehs.unu.edu Tel: +49 228 815 0226 www.ehs.unu.edu Copenhagen Climate Congress 10-12 March 2009

  12. Loss of Ecosystem Services and Slow Onset Hazards ENVIRONMENTAL EVENT or STRESS Rapid Onset Hazards (e.g. Floods, Earthquakes) Accelerated degradation of ecosystems e.g. pollution events, rapid soil erosion Gradual degradation of ecosystems e.g. land degradation, loss of biodiversity, sea-level rise Land/home destroyed, lost and/or unsafe Action of fleeing to save one’s life Livelihoods Impacted ENVIRONMENTAL EMERGENCY MIGRANT Person migrates away from impacted area Environmental reason for migration dominant subjectively: reoccurring droughts, sea-level rise Environmental reason for migration decision not dominant subjectively NOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL MIGRANT Rapid and effective social, economic and physical recovery of impacted areas Slow and ineffective social, economic and physical recovery of impacted areas Alternative livelihood was possible in impacted area Migrant does not return to impacted area Migrant does not return to impacted area ENVIRONMENTALLY MOTIVATED MIGRANT Alternative livelihood was possible in impacted area but required significant time ENVIRONMENTALLY MOTIVATED MIGRANT ENVIRONMENTALLY FORCED MIGRANT No alternative livelihood was possible in impacted area ENVIRONMENTALLY FORCED MIGRANT Impacted area no longer exists Spectrum of Environmentally Induced Migration Copenhagen Climate Congress 10-12 March 2009 Source: Renaud et al. 2009

  13. What is environmentally induced migration? • No agreed international definition of “environmental migration” • Working definition “Environmental migrants are persons or groups of persons who, for compelling reasons of sudden or progressive change in the environment that adversely affects their lives or living conditions, are obliged to leave their habitual homes, or choose to do so, either temporarily or permanently, and who move either within their country or abroad” (IOM 2007). Copenhagen Climate Congress 10-12 March 2009

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