global warming and climate refugees in
the pacific nations
friends of the earth
australia
The approximately seven million
inhabitants of the 22 small
Pacific
Island
states have a common concern: that
climate change will make their homelands
uninhabitable. Climate change and sea level
rise are serious threats for these people,
and impacts are already being felt on food
and water security as well as human
health.
The potential complete
obliteration of
Tuvalu
in
the coming decades challenges the value
that the world places on the sovereign
rights of low-lying island nations to
exist. This is one of the most fundamental
of human rights and whilst the world
debates about minor reductions in global
greenhouse gas emissions, a game of
roulette is being played with the fate of
Pacific Islanders.
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The Pacific nation of Tuvalu, where
the atolls are an average of only 2.5
meters above sea level, has gained
international recognition as one of the
world's most vulnerable nations to
climate change. However all of the
Pacific Islands have been ravaged by a
steady increase in cyclone frequency
and severity in recent years, such as
Cyclone Heta in January 2004 that
destroyed almost the entire
infrastructure of Niue near Papua New
Guinea .
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Increased flooding at high tide, which is
already being experienced in Tuvalu , as
well as the impacts of extreme weather
events on infrastructure, food and water
security, have the potential to render some
nations uninhabitable in the near future.
Clearly, the consequences of climate change
are not simply environmental, but also
social, cultural and economic.
Climate change also brings up two new
and immediate rights concerns: What happens
to people who are displaced by global
warming? And what happens to the sovereign
status of nations that need to be
abandoned? As more and more people find
their homelands uninhabitable, many will
need to flee, becoming 'ecologically
displaced people'.
the social dimensions of climate
change
While the concept of environmental
refugees is not new (the term has been in
use since the late 1940s), climate refugees
are an emerging phenomenon. In its World
Disasters Report 2001
,
the
International Red Cross suggested that 25
million people (up to 58% of the world's
existing refugees) may be environmental
refugees. These people are fleeing a
multitude of disruptions, and, it appears,
global warming is one of them.
Yet if current modelling and trends are
correct, even these rather daunting numbers
are dwarfed by what seems to be possible in
the near future. One expert on the topic of
climate refugees, Norman Myers of Oxford
University , says that there could be 150
million environmental refugees on the move
within 50 years, including up to 1 million
in the Pacific. Other researchers have
suggested higher figures, with some
estimates reaching 400 million displaced
people by the middle of this century. These
people are not currently recognized by the
United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), and are thus not afforded
any particular protection or support once
they become displaced.
expanding rights
While the definition enshrined in the
Universal Declaration on Human Rights
remains a vital benchmark in ensuring the
basic dignity of all peoples, the concept
of human rights must be expanded to include
new and evolving issues in the 21 st
century. These include recognition of the
concept of ecological debt and the carbon
debt owed by the over-consuming North to
the rest of the world. In practical terms,
this will mean the recognition of the
phenomenon of climate refugees by national
governments and entities such as the
UNHCR.
While the North will need to work with
affected communities in the South (through
acknowledgement of the ecological debt,
increased and new forms of foreign aid and
the transfer of appropriate and sustainable
technologies), the ultimate form of
'adaptation' to global warming will be the
recognition of climate refugees. While
there is a growing awareness that this
should be a last resort measure, that is,
an option for when all attempts to adapt to
changed local conditions have failed,
considerable forward planning will be
required to put structures in place to
assist people to move should global warming
make their current existence untenable. In
this sense, New Zealand / Aotearoa should
be acknowledged for the migration program
it has negotiated with Tuvalu , which will
allow the majority of the Tuvaluan
population to relocate to New Zealand in a
staged programme in coming years.
As noted by Tuvaluan activist Siuila
Toloa, when climate change forces the
movement of people as refugees, there is
the potential that countries will lose
their sovereignty and traditional customs.
Tuvaluans are heavily dependent on their
immediate ecological surroundings for their
subsistence. They have noticed a marked
decline in their traditional crops due to
saltwater intrusion, and marine resource
harvests have also declined. The resulting
reliance on imported, processed foods,
which in turn are associated with lifestyle
diseases such as hypertension and diabetes,
threaten both food security and health.
sovereignty
concerns
Samoan environmental activist Fiu
Mataese Elisara has highlighted the fact
that all Pacific nations have the right to
exist as sovereign nations on traditional
lands rather than being forced from their
lands by global warming. This right is
enshrined in Article 15 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, whereby all
peoples have the right to a
nationality.
What does it imply for sovereignty if
nations lose all or some of their lands and
territorial waters to climate change? While
one group of Tuvaluans has developed plans
to purchase an island off Fiji to relocate
to, what will happen to their sovereign
rights once they relinquish their
traditional lands? It is standard practice
for refugees to be 'incorporated' into the
citizenship of recipient countries where
they settle permanently. But it can be
argued that we are facing an unprecedented
situation where entire nations may be lost.
Many aspects of national and international
law will need to be tested and adapted in
coming years to deal with this problem.
As Siuila notes, “Most developments in
developed countries are undertaken at the
cost of the environment”, and in the case
of climate change the impacts will largely
be felt by southern communities. National
decisions that relate to development
models, infrastructure and energy thus all
have an inherent human rights dimension to
be considered. Siuila's words are also a
timely reminder that a reduction in natural
resource consumption in the North must take
place in order to prevent the loss of
sovereignty by small island states and
other extremely vulnerable southern
nations.
more information:
at this
site
and the publication:
Islands are lost even before the
sea-level rises
(pdf, 405 kb)
Friends of the Earth Australia :
www.foe.org.au/climate
or
www.foe.org.au/population
