ABSTRACT

Current estimates of the numbers of people who will be forced from their homes as a result of climate change by the middle of the century range from 50 to 200 million. Therefore, even the most optimistic projections envisage a crisis of migration that will dwarf any we have seen so far. And yet attempts to develop legal mechanisms to deal with this impending crisis have reached an impasse that shows little sign of being overcome. This is in spite of the rapidly growing academic study and policy development in the area of climate change generally.

'Climate Refugees': Beyond the Legal Impasse? addresses a fundamental gap in academic literature and policy making – namely the legal ‘no-man’s land’ in which the issue of climate refugees currently resides. Past proposals for the regulation of climate-induced migration are evaluated, inter alia by their original authors, and the volume also looks at current attempts to regulate climate-induced migration, including by officials from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Platform on Displacement Disaster (PDD).

Bringing together experts from a variety of academic fields, as well as officials from leading international organisations, this book will be of great interest to students and researchers of Environmental Law, Refugee Law, Human Rights Law, Environmental Studies and International Relations.

part I|15 pages

Foundations

chapter 1|13 pages

Overcoming the Legal Impasse?

Setting the scene

chapter 2|18 pages

‘Climate Refugees’

A legal mapping exercise

chapter 3|18 pages

A New Category of Refugees?

‘Climate refugees’ and a gaping hole in international law

chapter 4|18 pages

Norm Formalization In International Policy Cooperation

A framework for analysis

part II|18 pages

Defining and categorising

chapter 5|16 pages

Justice and Climate Migration

The importance of nomenclature in the discourse on twenty-first-century mobility

chapter 6|12 pages

Who are “Climate Refugees”?

Academic engagement in the post-truth era

part III|17 pages

Governing climate refugees

chapter 9|29 pages

State-Led, Regional, Consultative Processes

Opportunities to develop legal frameworks on disaster displacement

part IV|17 pages

Regulating climate refugees within existing legal regimes

chapter 10|15 pages

Drawing Upon International Refugee Law

The precautionary approach to protecting climate change-displaced persons

chapter 13|16 pages

Beyond The Shortcomings of International Law

A proposal for the legal protection of climate migrants

part V|12 pages

Envisioning sui generis pathways

chapter 15|22 pages

Cross-Border Displacement Due To Environmental Disaster

A proposal for UN Guiding Principles to fill the legal protection gap