Climate Change / Environment

How does climate variability, especially changes to rainfall, affect the livelihoods of rural households in developing countries? To what extent are households already using migration as a short-term coping or longer-term adaptation strategy? How might climate change impact the food security of smallholder farmers in the coming decades? And under what circumstances might the numbers of ‘environmental migrants’ increase significantly as climate change impacts build?

An international agreement to award refugee status to those fleeing the effects of climate change should be established, according to a report from the UK-based Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF).

Over the last decade, a series of devastating natural disasters have killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions, and decimated the built environment across wide regions, shocking the public imagination and garnering unprecedented financial support for humanitarian relief efforts. Some suggest that disaster migration must be supported by the international community, first as an adaption strategy in response to climate-change, and second, as a matter of international protection.

The continued exodus of Somalis to Kenya and Ethiopia has fuelled the debate on a new issue of global concern: climate refugees, driven from their homes and across borders by extreme weather events.

Massive displacement of people in some parts of Africa, especially the eastern part of the continent, is caused by lengthy periods of drought, famine and armed conflict. One illustration of this is the flood of people leaving Somalia since late 2010.