ABSTRACT
The 1967 Protocol10 to the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees defines a refugee as one who:
This definition does not, in any plausible way, cover people fleeing their homes because of environmental disruption, including disruption caused by climate change.11 Those fleeing disruption caused by climate change are not plausibly thought of as being persecuted, and so cannot have a well-founded fear of persecution. Generally speaking, the danger caused by climate change is indiscriminate, and hence the danger faced is not ‘on account of’ one of the ‘protected grounds’– race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.12 Given this, two essential elements of the refugee definition are missing in the case of those fleeing the impact of climate change.
