While Carbon Burns: The Debatable Journey of ‘Environmental Refugee’ as a Concept and Legal Dilemma

Abstract

Anthropogenic climate change and its apocalyptic predictions opened for academia a wide scene of conflicts, phenomena, and concepts, which would not have been available if climate change had not been discussed as a problem in the first place. Such a change, disastrous as it is, is not conducting itself on the environment as an abstract entity, but rather it disrupts livelihoods, wealth, economies, and governments. One important group of victims of this change is the individuals whose habitats are negatively impacted by climate change. One way to protect them and their rights was through conceptualizing their situation and giving them the status of ‘refugees’ who left their homes due to climate change and its disastrous effects. Yet such a concept of ‘environmental refugee’ did not pass smoothly through the academic, legal, and political circles, as from its early beginnings it was surrounded by debates and controversies. Moreover, the inevitable neediness for legal instruments to protect this category of refugees allowed scholars and humanitarian organizations to look for options and ideas to legalize the protection of environmental refugees. Who is the ‘environmental refugee’, how did this concept emerge, in which context and through which phases of evolution? How was this concept criticized and why? Is there any legal instrument that recognizes such a concept or offers protection for this vulnerable group? And what is the core mandate of UNHCR and IOM regarding climate-induced displacement? Answering these questions is the main objective of this chapter that revisits the concept of ‘environmental refugee’, its emergence, evolutions, legal dilemmas, and criticism. In addition to that, the chapter explores the question of environmental refugees in many cases, and how such a concept can be employed to judge the ongoing massive waves of displacement around the globe.