© A.Jamal

UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres has appealed to world governments to urgently redefine their response to natural disasters and displacement and to adopt new measures to cope with climate-induced displacement within and across borders.

Speaking in Oslo at the Nansen Conference on Climate Change and Displacement in the 21st Century, Guterres declared the issue to be "the defining challenge of our times" and noted that "the international community has hitherto lacked the political will to establish effective mechanisms to reduce the pace of climate change."

He pointed to evidence suggesting that natural disasters are growing in frequency and intensity and argued that climate change “cannot be regarded or addressed in isolation from the other global mega-trends that are conditioning the future of our planet and its people." These trends – population growth, urbanization, water, food, and energy insecurity – will increasingly interact with each other and create the potential for competition and conflict over scarce natural resources, leading to “growing numbers of people being displaced from one community, country and continent to another," Guterres said.

The High Commissioner also warned of slow onset disasters, such as drought and desertification, leading to "a tipping point at which people's lives and livelihoods come under such serious threat that they have no choice but to leave their homes." He further predicted that "natural disasters will uproot large numbers of people in a matter of hours, forcing them to flee for their lives in conditions that resemble refugee movements."

He emphasized that much of the movement prompted by climate change will likely be within national borders and encouraged states to ensure that their responses are fully consistent with the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. Guterres also warned, however, that not all climate change displacement will be internal and that people will increasingly be displaced across borders and may be unable to return home. Many of these people, he said, will not qualify for refugee status under the terms of the 1951 Refugee Convention.

To address this, the High Commissioner proposed the development of a global guiding framework for situations of cross-border displacement resulting from natural disasters. Such a framework should contain arrangements for temporary or interim protection for people who flee natural disasters. He also suggested that relevant existing treaties could be invoked to address the problem.

Guterres also called on countries which bear primary responsibility for climate change to establish a “massive programme of support” to the most seriosuly affected countries and to switch from the usual emergency-mode response to natural disasters because “the billions of dollars spent on relief in recent decades have evidently not led to the sustainable strengthening of national and local capacities."