The effects of climate change will disproportionately affect the world’s poorest, risking the lives and health of millions of people located mainly in the Global South.
In the face of climate change, the poorest are suffering from the excess emissions of CO₂ linked to the lifestyle of the richest. It is time to act, in the name of climate and social justice.
High tide at Nukatoa Island, in the Takuu Atoll, Papua New Guinea.
Richard Moyle
Donald Trump portrays migrants as a foreign problem ‘dumped’ on America’s doorstep. That view ignores the global forces that bind nations together, including trade, climate change and colonization.
Sahia moved to Singpur with her husband, where they planned to build a life.
Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson
Sahia and her husband hoped to start a life in Singpur, a village in Bangladesh. But the riverside community found climate change made putting down roots impossible.
When subsistence farmers become climate refugees, who will help them pay the cost of relocation?
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Morten Wendelbo, American University School of Public Affairs
The $4 billion that foundations are pledging to spend within five years amounts to less than 1 percent of what businesses and governments spend on global warming every year.
Women looking for water in Sudan. Climate change can play a role in forcing people to migrate.
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To address environmental degradation, including climate change, it is essential to take into account human rights and migration. Hybrid international law and regional thinking are both essential.
Pakistani commuters travel on a flooded street following a heavy rainfall in Karachi, Aug. 31, 2017.
AP Photo/Shakil Adil
By 2050, climate change impacts such as storms and drought could displace up to 300 million people worldwide. Nations should recognize ‘climate migrants’ and make plans for aiding and resettling them.
If New Zealand introduces a climate refugee visa, 100 Pacific Islanders could be granted access on the basis that their home islands are threatened by rising seas.
Reuters/David Gray
New Zealand’s plan to create the world’s first humanitarian visa for climate refugees has to consider ways people from Pacific Island nations actually want to be assisted.
COP 22 President Salaheddine Mezouar from Morocco, right, hands over a gavel to Fiji’s prime minister and president of COP 23 Frank Bainimarama, left, during the opening of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, Monday, Nov. 6, 2017.
AP Photo/Martin Meissner
Although climate change threatens the world’s small island nations, many can find ways to adapt and preserve their homes and cultures – especially if wealthy countries cut emissions and provide support.
Climate fight: a traditional Fijian warrior poses at the UN climate summit in Bonn.
Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters
To many people, island nations such as Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands are synonymous with climate catastrophe. But prophesies of doom aren’t all that helpful.
US President Donald Trump this week signed an executive order on “energy independence”. The order rescinds key elements of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. Trump’s order lifts requirements…
The Flinders Ranges were once a refuge from a changing climate.
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Areas like the Flinders Ranges have provided refuge for flora and fauna when the climate has changed. But rapid temperature increases and human intervention may stop them doing so again.
Villagers watch the sunset over a small lagoon near the village of Tangintebu in the central Pacific island nation of Kiribati.
David Gray/Reuters
In the 1960s, with the phosphate boom over and Nauru’s economy in ruins, Australia offered to move the entire nation to Queensland’s Curtis Island. But with no sovereignty on offer, the deal collapsed.