Stop Peddling Fear of Climate Migrants - Republication

Mika Baumeister via UNSPLASH

Sarah Nash and Caroline Zickgraft, political scientists whose research areas include climate change and migration, have written an excellent Op-Ed in response to yet another sensational projections report of climate change impacts on migration that you should read.

We’ll link to its entirety here, but a snippet:

“And that is the crux of such reports: it’s not the changes in climate and the floods, heatwaves, extreme weather events, droughts and forest fires that are to be feared. The object of fear is the ‘Other’, people forced to flee their homes as a result of these changes who travel to ‘our’ shores. Despite summer heatwaves in cities across Europe and associated mortality, wildfires in the United States that have reduced entire communities to ashes, and recurring floods affecting the same communities again and again, the Global North is more scared of boats of people traversing the Mediterranean Sea, of people clandestinely moving across its land borders, and scaling walls built to keep them out. In this worldview, the ecological threat isn’t ecological at all – it’s human.”

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We also chimed in on that report, with a few additional Perspectives:

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WFP Links Record Hunger Levels to Conflict, Climate Change, COVID-19

Photo by Amali Tower

At a UN Security Council meeting on conflict-induced food insecurity and the risk of famine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), northeast Nigeria, Yemen and South Sudan, WFP Executive Director David Beasley said the the COVID-19 pandemic had compounded widespread food insecurity caused by years of conflict, which now combined with conflict and climate change, meant that “the 270 million people marching toward the brink of starvation need our help more than ever,” adding that 2021 was a “make or break year.”

He urged billionaires and businesses to step up to help save 30 million people at risk of starvation who need $.4.9 billion in aid for one year.

“Worldwide, there are over 2,000 billionaires with a net worth of $8 trillion. In my home country, the USA, there are 12 individuals alone worth $1 trillion.”

“In fact, reports state that three of them made billions upon billions during COVID. I am not opposed to people making money, but humanity is facing the greatest crisis any of us have seen in our lifetimes.”

“It’s time for those who have the most to step up, to help those who have the least in this extraordinary time in world history. To show you truly love your neighbor,” Beasley said. “The world needs you right now and it’s time to do the right thing.”

WFP fears more people may die from hunger, resulting from economic impacts of the pandemic via lockdowns and lost jobs than the virus itself, which has now infected more than 30 million people and killed nearly 1 million people.

WFP warns 20 million are severely food insecure in Yemen and a further 3 million may face starvation due to COVID-19. South Sudan, where a path to peace was hoped, is now facing renewed violence and floods in Jonglei State, and millions are at risk in Nigeria, Burkina Faso and more.

The UN Security Council was briefed on September 17, via videoconference, by the UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock and the Director-General of FAO Qu Dongyu, in addition to Beasley, following a “Note by the Secretariat” by Lowcock, required by Security Council resolution 2417, warning of food insecurity, including the risk of famine, as a result of conflict, in these four countries.

The note highlighted that food security has been exacerbated by natural disasters, economic shocks and public health crises, all compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. It also highlighted the severe flooding over the last two years in South Sudan that destroyed 11,000 tons of cereals and affected 14 million livestock.

In a briefing on Yemen the previous day, Lowcock signaled frustration over severe funding shortfalls in all four countries. (VOA, CNBC, What’s In Blue)

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Hit by COVID and Climate Change, Island States Battle Debt Crisis

Briona Baker via UNSPLASH

In a system of unequal power, the climate crisis has the capacity to exacerbate existing vulnerabilities.

This Monday, ahead of the UN General Assembly, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) called on donor governments and development banks to help them avert a looming crisis through debt relief and climate finance for 44 small island and low-lying coastal developing states.

Lois Young, Belize’s Permanent Representative to the UN and chair of the AOSIS, said “SIDS (small island developing states) are sinking, and it’s not due to just the sea level rise and climate change. We are actually sinking in debt.”

She added these nations were already burdened by unsustainably high debt, prior to the COVID-19 crisis, which has now made things worse.

The alliance released a statement indicating many of its members’ economies, heavily reliant on tourism, were in a “freefall,” which could reverse development “by decades” and bring on a “protracted debt crisis.”

A Caribbean economist who advises governments and central banks in the region, said the reasons for the debt varied but do include the costly impacts of natural disasters increasingly hitting island states.

Many island states in the Caribbean, the Pacific and beyond do not qualify for the debt suspension programs catered to nations during the COVID-19 pandemic because they are considered middle-income countries.

They argue islands should get similar help since they face growing threats extreme weather brings, and face the additional burden of adaptation.

The climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, Tina Eonemto Stege, said global warming was already causing "loss and damage", with schools and hospitals having to close due to weather, rising seas and salt water intrusion.

"We refuse to be swept away by the tide," she said. "We know what we all need to do to prevent this crisis."

Stege called on governments, especially carbon-emitting nations, to deliver on Paris Agreement promises, including the pledge of $100 billion a year from 2020 for development, which she called a “minimum”, but yet to be delivered.

She called for “creative measures” for SIDS and a “comprehensive plan” that looks deeply at the vulnerabilities of small island developing states. (Reuters)

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A Note About debt Relief

Debt relief has been offered by the IMF during the COVID-19 crisis for certain countries.

Civil society waged a strong debt relief campaign in the early 2000’s for low income countries, many of whom were also battling national AIDS crises, notably due to the onerous terms and negative development impacts of the structural adjustment programs that accompanied many loans.

Now some of those same civil society organizations are calling for debt relief when climate disasters strike as well.

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More Than Five Million Acres, Burned, Thousands Displaced in West Coast Wildfires

Tegan Mierle via UNSPLASH

As many as 100 fires have spread over California, Oregon, Washington, now spreading into Idaho, 280,000 (IDMC) people are now displaced, at least 27 people are dead, air quality is abysmal, stretching far beyond the affected states to the eastern coast of the United States and even parts of Europe, and state leaders, citing climate change, are pleading for help.

All the while, the US President, after weeks of silence, once again, blamed forest management and denied climate change played any part in the present fires, saying, “I don’t think science knows.”

The governors of all threes states cited climate change impacts like drying forests with rising heat as contributing to more dangerous fires.

In an open letter response, Governor Jay Inslee of Washington, a fierce climate change advocate, addressed the President directly, “I hope you had an enlightening trip to the West Coast, where your refusal to address climate change — and your active steps to allow even more carbon pollution — will accelerate devastating wildfires like you are seeing today.”

Abrahm Lustgarten wondered if climate migration would be a factor in the United States? He interviewed a cross-section of more than 40 experts in economics, risk analysis, climate science and urban planning. Through his interviews and research, he contends Americans will find their lives negatively transformed by the environment, namely more heat, less water, and that one in 12 Americans in the South will move westward, causing shifts in population and also widening socio-economic divides.

In a sign of hope, more Americans now rank climate change as a top political priority or concern, as compared to 2016. In Iowa, Democratic caucus attendees ranked climate change second to health as an issue of concern, and Yale and George Mason University polls found that even Republicans’ views are shifting, with one in three now stating climate change should be declared a national emergency. (NY Times, NY Times Magazine, LA Times)

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UN Launches Pioneering Climate Security Project in the Pacific

Pablo Garcia Saldaña via UNSPLASH

The UN, in partnership with Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, launched a USD $3.2 million UN Climate Security Project yesterday as part of the UN Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), and is the first multi-country project of its kind in the region. 

The PBF is the UN financial instrument of first resort to sustain peace in countries and regions at risk of conflict or affected by conflict, including that caused by climate change. 

The project will provide 24-months of support to assess and begin to address critical climate security challenges faced by these three countries, including displacement and forced migration, resulting from livelihood loss, food security, coastal erosion, increased social tensions linked to shrinking land and tenure, and industries such as fisheries, as well as the ever increasing costs of responding to worsening natural disasters. 

In a quest to avert social conflict, the project will focus on tailored climate security assessments, including youth and gender-sensitive discussions and partnerships with key stakeholders. The project will be implemented by UNDP and IOM.

Khaled Khiari, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Middle East, Asia and the Pacific from the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations noted that “climate change in the Pacific has the potential to cause a myriad of cascading fragility and instability risks.” 

The three country leaders echoed the harrowing climate change challenges each of their countries are facing, all of which are only two meters above sea-level at their highest points. 

“This is about our survival, safety and security”

President of the Marshall Islands, H.E. David Kabua

Khiari noted the groundbreaking nature of the project, with which we certainly agree, and demonstrates the significant movement of the conversation of climate change to climate security within the UN security architecture, most notably within the UN Security Council, whose most recent debate on climate security was in July this year, and included a briefing by Pacific representative of the Climate Security Expert Network, covered in this Spotlight. (UNDP, FBC News)

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Charikar Flood Survivors Mourn Dead as Afghanistan Grows Increasingly Vulnerable to Climate Change

Photo by EJ Wolfson via UNSPLASH

After the August 26 flood, 129 people have already been found dead under the rubble and mud and the town is destroyed. Flooding and natural disasters are not new to Afghanistan or Pakistan, but experts warn they could increase with climate change altering weather patterns. Worse yet, both countries are ranked high as vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and among the countries least prepared to deal with the effects. 

The UNDP’s Chief of Livelihoods and Resilience warns “climate change, conflict, displacement, and urbanization are linked, climate change is a risk multiplier in the complex socio-economic and political context of Afghanistan.”

So far Pakistan’s monsoon rains this year have killed 233 people, and destroyed more than 1,300 homes. Karachi usually would receive five inches of rain from July to September, but this year it has seen more than 19 inches already. 

The Karachi head of Pakistan’s meteorological department says the effects of climate change are already being seen and felt. 

Land and housing pressures from above average birth rates are already being felt, and if political negotiations go well, Afghan refugee returnees from Iran and Pakistan will further increase those pressures. 

Thus far, Pakistan’s national climate change adaptation plans have been sidelined by a lack of money and capacity. (Telegraph)

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