Abstract
The challenges for humanity posed by the concerning issue of climate change, forces us to rethink our environmental public policy models and updated them in the face of the increasing kinds of risks. Among the consequences of climate change, its impact on migration has become the growing focus for researchers and decision-makers. Nevertheless, the knowledge in this field is still limited and incomplete. The current phenomena of migration, observed both at the local or regional levels, as well as at a global dimension, forces us to rethink current cooperation models at a multilevel scale and sustainable development from the global through the local level to affront it in all its complexity.
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Notes
- 1.
The Barbados Programme of Action (BPOA), The Mauritius Strategy of Implementation (MSI) of 2005 and MSI+5 Outcome document, of climate change https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/sids.
- 2.
Doherty, B. (2017, April 4). ‘Disaster Alley’: Australia Could Be Set to Receive New Wave of Climate Refugees. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/05/disaster-alley-australia-could-be-set-to-receive-new-wave-of-climate-refugees.
Doherty, B., & Roy, A. E. (2017, May 8). World Bank: Let Climate-Threatened Pacific Islanders Migrate to Australia or NZ. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/08/australia-and-nz-should-allow-open-migration-for-pacific-islanders-threatened-by-climate-says-report.
Harman, G. (2014, September 15). Has the Great Climate Change Migration Already Begun? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/vital-signs/2014/sep/15/climate-change-refugees-un-storms-natural-disasters-sea-levels-environment.
Lakhani, N. (2019, July 29). ‘People Are Dying’: How the Climate Crisis Has Sparked an Exodus to the US. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jul/29/guatemala-climate-crisis-migration-drought-famine.
Markham, L. (2016, April 6). How Climate Change Is Pushing Central American Migrants to the US. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/06/us-mexico-immigration-climate-change-migration.
- 3.
As it was previously mentioned, climate change in combination with migration is a complex and multifaceted problem. It is exactly due to this that it must be approached from a multidisciplinary perspective, and one where all of its factors are addressed separately. Given the case, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) provide an excellent framework to both analyze this particular issue (Issova et al. 2020), and to find its solutions. Although under this perspective most, if not all, SDG can be broadly linked to the issue of migration due to climate change, it is necessary to only take specific points to exemplify these connections better.
By overviewing the SDG, it is clear that the issues they address are included in this text. Mainly, Goals number 11 through 16 can be related to the matters of: the increase of global temperatures, the rising of sea levels, land degradation, drug violence, and slums in cities that are destinations for migratory routes. All of these previous topics overall highlight the multicausality of climate change, and once again point out the latent connection between inequality and vulnerability. Specifically, there are some targets with the Goals worth mentioning, that further demonstrate the interlinkages between migration, inequality and vulnerability, climate change, and international public policies.
SDG number 13, Climate Action, and it is perhaps the goal that is clearest related to subject of this essay. Target number 13.1 “Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries” is perhaps the idea that is most stressed throughout the entirety of the text. An example of the Dutch government and their novel protection system to protect the levees they hosted was used; however, it is imperative to have more successful cases around the world, both to protect internally displaced people as well as international migrants. It also stresses the idea mentioned about the peripheries of the cities. Targets 13.2 “Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning” and 13.3 “Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning” demonstrate the necessity for solutions that both come from an international scope, but are coordinated with local actions and solutions through robust institutional capacity. Target 13.B “Promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change-related planning and management in least developed countries and small island developing States, including focusing on women, youth and local and marginalized communities” underlines the need to address the particular issues in southeast Asian islands, who are the most affected by the rising of sea levels. It would be important to also consider SDG Number 16, Peace Justice and Strong Institutions. Like it was explained throughout the course of this text, migration is multicausal, and one of its origins is violence. Target 16.4 states that “By 2030, significantly reduce illicit financial and arms flows, strengthen the recovery and return of stolen assets and combat all forms of organized crime.” The last part is particularly relevant in the current case of the Northern Triangle of Central America, where waves of violence caused by organized crime blend alongside environmental degradation and provoke migration. Also, the strength of all institutions is vital to properly address fairly new issues, such as climate migration, and to solve them, in the long run.
When addressing migration, climate change, and inequality, it is necessary to take into account the environmental facts, as much as it is necessary to ponder on the societal factors. In that sense, the SDG cover all of the necessary points, in an attempt to tackle them separately. However, they all refer sometimes to the same issues, such as migration caused by environmental factors.
- 4.
Article in El Financiero on June 14th, 2019 by Alejandro Moreno https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/opinion/alejandro-moreno/migrantes.
- 5.
Article demonstrating the increase of migration form the Northern Triangle of Central America to the United States, that went through Mexico. In Pew Research Center, on December 7th, 2017 by Jeffrey S. Passel D’Vera Cohn & Ana González Berrera, https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2017/12/07/rise-in-u-s-immigrants-from-el-salvador-guatemala-and-honduras-outpaces-growth-from-elsewhere/.
- 6.
It is important the construction of legal international instruments that allow for orderly migration flows respectful of human rights. The ensurance of migrants and refugees rights indeed requires international coordination. The ensurance of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) rights is responsibility of national and local governments who could use the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and create plans of actions on the subject: https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/idpersons/pages/idpersonsindex.aspx.
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The author acknowledges the contribution of Marielise Gutiérrez Ibarra for the realization of this chapter.
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Cedillo González, C. (2021). Does the Environment Affect Migration, or Does Migration Affect the Environment?. In: Cedillo González, C., Espín Ocampo, J. (eds) Human Displacement from a Global South Perspective. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64819-0_8
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