The international law is inadequate to deal with the millions of people forecast to become climate exiles, especially in developing countries, in the face of escalating climate change, warned the UK based NGO Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD).
Highlighting the fact—how international legal frameworks are unprepared to deal with the victims of climate change, FIELD said that the international community needs to prepare for the likelihood that some small islands countries and low-lying territories will be lost.
"International refugee law focuses on those who are persecuted for political, racial or religious reasons. It was not designed for those who are left homeless by environmental pressures," FIELD director Joy Hyvarinen said.
Migration in itself is not bad, but migration forced by climate change is a tragedy and the international legal framework needs to be adjusted to help climate exiles and deal with statelessness and compensation, Hyvarinen said in a release.
Estimates vary, between 200 million and one billion people could become displaced by climate change by 2050 and FIELD pointed out that world leaders should make preparations in an event of such a scenario even though some of these figures have been questioned. As climate exiles have no standing in existing international law, this raises unprecedented legal challenges, FIELD said.
There are currently no legal frameworks or guidelines that can provide assistance or protection for people crossing borders because of displacement due to climate change. Climate change is expected to hit developing countries the hardest. Its effects higher temperatures, rising sea levels, food insecurity and more frequent weather-related disasterspose risks for agriculture, food, and water supplies causing chaos for millions of people.
The so-called climate hotspots low lying islands, coastal regions, large river deltas and underdeveloped regions remain in danger of catastrophic environmental change, the NGO said.
Particularly vulnerable are small island states. The entire population of the Carteret Islands of Papua New Guinea, are the first people to be officially evacuated due to climate change. Others, such asKiribati or the Marshall Islands, may disappear completely or become uninhabitable making their
populations stateless.
Under current international law, any climate-induced, cross-border migrations from these areas would trigger little if any protection or provide aid, Hyvarinen said.
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