Migration and Human Displacement in the Context of Climate change: Reflections on the Category of Climate Refugees

Abstract

As a consequence of the impering productive system in the world, climate change is considered as one of the most controversial phenomena because of its environmental, economical, demographic and social effects which cause, in the end, the displacement and migration of population, specially in the Global South. Nowadays, natural disasters and climate change are factors causing the greatest number of migrant people around the globe. Events such as droughts in the Sahel region, the rising sea levels in the Asian South and Southeast and the disappearance of insular states as Kiribati or Tuvalu give testimony of this condition. In this context, the term “climate refugee” arises to tackle and give an answer to those people who are forced to abandon their homes due to environmental deterioration caused by climate change. Nevertheless, this concept poses a series of challenges and difficulties regarding its implementation in international law of refugees. Thus, the aim is to provide an approximation of a collective, the climate refugees, by analyzing their origins and consequences