Climate-Induced Migration of Youth: A Case for Inclusion in the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA)

Global environmental change and the exacerbating impacts of climate change will enhance the scope and scale of human mobility, while also altering the established patterns of human migration. Increasingly, these displacements and migration patterns are cast in negative contexts, as more and more people are forced into mobility that increases the pressure on receiving areas, and can results in tension and conflict. However, there needs to be the acknowledgement that migration and its changing patterns can provide opportunities as well as challenges. There needs to be increased research and international action that seeks to identify and enhance the positive impacts of migration, while seeking to mitigate the risks from the same. Whether movement occurs within or across national borders, there is a need to both prepare for the scale of migration and protect migrants throughout the migration journey.

We can thus contemplate migration as an adaptation choice and seek to develop the capacity of receiving areas, or we can consider certain situations of migration as a failure of adaptation, and seek to enhance the resilience of sending areas. Either way, it is important to build international capacity and frameworks to account for these factors, and acknowledge climate-induced migration as an increasing reality. It is important to deepen our understanding of how migration will affect other types of social change, such as the evolution of cities, the formation of 'poverty traps' and the coexistence of cultures. Current policy frameworks should take account of these factors to avoid having to deal later with impoverishment and displacement under high-risk conditions.

In addition, the issue of migration will increasingly impact the younger generation as more locations surpass the limits of effective adaptation. Young people are particularly vulnerable and are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change. A 2021 report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) found that climate change is already displacing millions around the world, especially in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, which are some of the most vulnerable regions to climate risks.

An increased migration of young people would result in a greater loss of local traditions, culture, and knowledge. Additionally, this migration could intensify the pressure on receiving areas, leading to higher levels of unemployment, resentment, and related problems. Moreover, gender norms leave women without adequate tools or the capacity to adapt to climate change, as well as impede their ability to leverage migration for risk reduction.

Global Policies to Comprehensively Address Climate Migration

There is a need for global and national policies to drive towards green and resilient development and socio-economic pathways by pursuing far-sighted action to avert distress-driven migration and harness climate-induced migration to foster economic and demographic transitions, through increased investments to support the generation of productive and sustainable climate-smart jobs.

Such policies should also require greater international focus and support through the formal UN and UNFCCC processes. This is where the upcoming negotiations in the UNFCCC on the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) can play a critical policy and regulatory role.

Globally, climate change and migration are being presented across diverse legal and policy frameworks and is increasingly being discussed in domains related to climate change, migration and disaster risk reduction such as the SDGs, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. However, despite growing scientific evidence, conversations around climate induced human mobility have been minimal in the international climate negotiations and the UNFCCC process, focusing mostly on displacement as form of loss and damage, and not on the positive aspects of migration.  There is an urgent need for more international recognition of migration in the context of climate change adaptation, a better understanding of its dimensions and a collective willingness to tackle it. The establishment of the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) under Article 7.1 of the Paris Agreement and recent deliberations to ascertain its modalities provide an opportunity to bring climate induced migration to the forefront to address climate risks and vulnerabilities, enhance adaptive capacity and strengthen resilience of those affected.

The Potential of the Global Goal on Adaptation in Channelling a Migration Discussion

The GGA was established under the Paris Agreement to enhance work on countries’ long and short-term adaptation targets. The negotiations around the GGA have been slow-paced, stymied by the complexity of the adaptation practice along with difficulties in aggregating national and global climate action goals. The methodological complexity inherent within the overall architecture of the GGA, which necessitates a common knowledge and application of technical principles also adds to its poor pace, along with the political sensitivity and ambiguity that surrounds monitoring and reporting of adaptation practices. However, these deliberations and the indicator design process allow opportunities for the UNFCCC to acknowledge the linkages between climate change and migration in a formal setting, and initiate a path to create an enabling environment for climate induced migration to be recognised more and perhaps the design of adaptation interventions to incorporate some aspects of the same. Identifying climate-induced migration as an element for the GGA will ensure that this issue can be discussed at the UNFCCC and international negotiations to gather the necessary momentum to better manage further climate migration.

An empowered and well-defined GGA architecture, set in properly quantified and measurable indicators can tackle context-specific issues and propose interventions to strengthen the adaptive capacity of both receiving and sending areas, which could ensure that climate-induced migration is well managed and that social systems and communities in both regions are stronger. Additionally, the learnings from the GGA, and its attendant indicators, can be used to develop policies that seek to build the capacities of migrants themselves, and to increase the viability of migration itself as an adaptation measure.  

Furthermore, the GGA can contribute to raising awareness regarding climate-induced migration. It can provide an initial point to leverage policies and global commitments to channel financial and technical assistance to both sending and receiving areas, enabling to better manage climate induced migration. Additionally, the GGA can promote international cooperation on climate-induced migration. This entails creating a platform for countries to exchange experiences, best practices, and develop collaborative solutions. Lastly, the GGA, by establishing climate-induced migration in one of the key UN processes, can contribute to protect the rights of climate migrants, especially during their process of migration.

Conclusion

It is imperative that a discourse around the acknowledgment of climate-induced migration, and the potential policy solutions, is undertaken at the earliest, so that the increasing crises of unemployment, displacement, including of youth, can be given focus in a timely manner. This process would also support a more balanced discourse that does not focus the public attention and resources in a disproportionate way on a handful of migration and displacement situations and neglect many others. It is crucial to develop a comprehensive raft of equitable and just policies to prevent the further worsening of the immensely unjust tragedy of those forced to leave their homes in the context of climate change. 

It is the need of the hour to acknowledge both the challenges and the potential of migration for the young people of the world, as they enter the economic spheres and seek to build their lives and livelihoods. The acknowledgement of climate-induced migration within the GGA can be the key initial step in ensuring that the youth of tomorrow do not face magnified versions of the challenges that have already begun to plague the youth of today.

About the authors:

Shubhi Goel is a Joint Secretary at Carbon Markets Association of India (CMAI).  Her focus is currently on the carbon markets domain, where she studies the different market instruments present and the significance of their environmental integrity and boundaries. Her work involves analyzing the design features for an effective and successful Emission Trading Scheme in India. She holds a master’s degree in Climate Science and Policy from the TERI School of Advanced Studies and a graduate degree in Economics Hons. from the University of Delhi. Earlier, she was working with the Earth Science and Climate Change Division which undertakes research in various climate change fields at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). Her work broadly revolves around international climate policy, negotiations, cooperation, transparency, carbon market and climate finance. Her niche areas of expertise also include international climate finance, carbon markets, and industrial decarbonization. 

Amlan Mishra is a Research Associate at TERI’s Centre for Climate Change Research. He holds a master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Sussex and a master’s degree in Economics from McGill University. His research interests revolve around economic implications of climate change and international consensus building through multilateralism. At present, he is working in the Earth Science and Climate Change Division which undertakes research in various climate change fields. His work broadly revolves around climate adaptation, monitoring & evaluation, just transitions, international climate finance and renewable energy trade.

Soham Banerjee is a PhD student in Politics at the University of Manchester, where he currently investigates the spatial politics of international climate finance. Before pursuing a doctoral degree, he worked as a Research Associate at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). He has post-graduate degrees in Climate Science and Policy from the TERI School of Advanced Studies and Public Policy from the University of Reading. 

This article is part of the IOM Blog Series: Youth Voices on Migration, Environment and Climate Change

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