CLIMATE DISPLACEMENT IN THE NEWS
Increasingly the Catholic Church has taken steps to highlight to world leaders the plight of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. As we noted in a previous Spotlight article, Pope Francis created and presides over a migrants and refugees section of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, in order to lead initiatives for the millions forcibly displaced by war, natural disasters and climate change.
With the Covid-19 pandemic restricting travel, the country’s economy is expected to shrink about 30%, pushing its debt limits from 70% to 95%. Antigua and Barbuda is not alone, and stands with other small island states, who we detailed in this SPOTLIGHT last September, that 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.
The area, known to be ecologically sensitive, experienced catastrophic flooding following a 2013 monsoon, leaving some 6,000 dead. As regional authorities and the Indian military continued search and rescue operations in the wake of Sunday’s incident, various media outlets reported that experts had previously warned of the region’s fragility and how damaging the many planned infrastructure projects could be, especially with the threat of climate change. Former water resources minister Uma Bharti recalled her disapproval of dams in the region, and environmental groups expressed their hope that the recent incident would send a message to the government that ignoring experts’ warnings regarding climate change and infrastructure projects is dangerous and unacceptable.
In a report to US Congress last July, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), recommended establishing a climate migration pilot program to assist communities that seek to relocate as a climate resilience strategy.
Key amongst their findings was the lack of federal leadership, namely the lack of a federal agency with authority to lead on climate migration. This has led to ad-hoc federal support to communities in need of climate migration, like Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana, who have been waiting many decades to relocate, and Newtok, Alaska, who waited 25 years for only some residents to move in 2019.
CBS’ long-running television newsmagazine Sunday Morning covered climate displacement in a segment during last week’s broadcast, asking whether there may be a perfect place to live in the US for those concerned about sea level rise and other climate threats. While the segment makes a few interesting and important points, it ultimately misses the mark and fails to meaningfully contribute to the discourse around climate change and human mobility.
Bangladesh’s Minister of Foreign Affairs AK Abdul Momen says his country requires “effective and proactive” support from the international community to address the Rohingya crisis as well as climate-related displacement, an important reminder to the international community that it bears responsibility for protecting migrants wherever they may reside.
