The Youth Action Plan (YAP) in EU External Action: A Key Opportunity to Shape the EU's Approach to Human Mobility in the Context of Climate Change

It is well established that the impacts of climate change are widespread and increasingly irreversible, threatening the effective enjoyment of human rights and impacting human mobility patterns across the world. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), approximately 3.3-3.6 billion people live in settings that are highly vulnerable to climate change, thereby warranting greater consideration and analysis of global policy approaches to human mobility in the context of climate change.

In 2022, the European Union (EU) adopted its first Youth Action Plan (YAP) in EU External Action, with the first pillar aiming to increase youth engagement in policy and decision-making processes. Recognising that human mobility in the context of climate change is primarily addressed by the EU through its external action, the YAP provides a unique entry point for youth to shape and inform the EU’s approach to this phenomenon. 

More specifically - and noting that youth have identified both human rights and climate change as priority areas for EU external action - the YAP provides an important opportunity for youth to drive and facilitate the development of an anticipatory and rights-based approach to human mobility in the context of climate change, thereby moving away from the deterrence approach currently favoured by the EU. While such an approach would continue to support action to prevent displacement, including through disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation measures, it would simultaneously recognise the reality that people are moving in the context of climate change and aim to protect and promote their rights by facilitating safe and dignified movement.

Opportunities under the YAP

Provided that youth are meaningfully engaged in relevant policy processes under the YAP, they can advocate for the EU to facilitate safe and dignified human mobility in the context of climate change in at least three ways.

Reframing the Narrative

Firstly, youth engaged under the YAP can challenge the current policy narrative around human mobility in the context of climate change. The EU’s external approach to human mobility is widely defined by what many refer to as the “deterrence paradigm,” wherein human mobility is conceptualized as a risk to the security of the EU. Human mobility in the context of climate change constitutes no exception, with a clear policy focus on the vulnerability of the EU to the “cascading” and “spillover effects” of climate change, including “climate-induced migration”. EU external action increasingly aims to prevent these “consequences”, as demonstrated by the Commission’s statement that development assistance, including in the context of climate change, can “help people feel that their future lies at home”. While recognising that not everyone is able or willing to move away from areas impacted by climate change, conflating development assistance with the prevention of human mobility can be dangerous and unhelpful for people who do move in the context of climate change.

Youth engaged under the YAP can encourage policymakers to facilitate safe and dignified movement by reframing human mobility in the context of climate change as a protection challenge rather than a security concern. Harmful and securitised narratives could be tackled by emphasizing four key points. Firstly, the relationship between climate change and human mobility is not linear and a number of considerations shape whether people move or remain in place within this context.  Secondly, human mobility in the context of climate change is not always avoidable, and in some cases it can constitute a strategy to prevent displacement and other human rights risks. Thirdly, while some people may seek to enter and remain in the EU in the context of climate change, the vast majority of climate-related human mobility continues to occur outside of the EU. Global data indicates that most human mobility in the context of climate change occurs internally rather than across international borders,  and when people do cross borders, they usually remain within their region. Finally, it is important to recall that the EU and its Member States are responsible for a significant proportion of cumulative CO₂ emissions, and any efforts to address the “consequences” of climate change should recognise this interlinkage.

Aligning External Action with Human Rights Commitments 

Secondly, youth can remind policymakers of, and call for increased compliance with, the EU’s human rights obligations and commitments in the context of its external action. EU law establishes that EU external action shall be guided by a number of principles including “the universality and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental freedoms, respect for human dignity, the principles of equality and solidarity, and respect for the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law”. The EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy 2020-2024 reaffirms the EU’s commitment to “leadership on human rights and the rule of law at home and abroad”.

Both the EU and its Member States have recognised their international human rights obligations in the context of climate change and the 2020-2024 Action Plan specifically aims to strengthen the link between human rights and the environment in EU external action. This includes a commitment to support measures to address the impacts of the triple planetary crisis on “the exercise of human rights, such as rights to life, health, safe drinking water and sanitation, food, adequate housing and standard of living, including for climate-induced displaced people”. 

Building on this, the EU has made a number of policy commitments to protect people impacted by human mobility in the context of climate change, including by facilitating safe and dignified movement. Relevant examples include its involvement in the development of the UN Global Compact on Refugees and the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. The latter includes a specific objective to enhance the availability and flexibility of pathways for regular migration, including in the context of environmental degradation and climate change. The EU has also endorsed the Agenda for the Protection of Cross-Border Displaced Persons in the Context of Disasters and Climate Change and acted as Chair of the Platform on Disaster Displacement  from 2022-2023.
    
While the EU’s obligations and commitments to protect human rights in the context of climate change, including by facilitating movement with dignity, are difficult to reconcile with current external policy approaches, the YAP provides an important entry point for youth to bring these responsibilities to the forefront of decision-making processes, thereby driving greater alignment with human rights considerations. 

Incorporating Young People’s Perspectives   

Thirdly, youth can advocate for policymakers to better address and incorporate the specific rights, protection needs, and perspectives of young people impacted by human mobility in the context of climate change. Youth with lived experiences of climate-related human mobility can provide particularly valuable contributions in this context.

Despite contributing the least, young people often bear the brunt of the climate crisis, with current estimates predicting that children born in 2020 are likely to face on average 2 times as many wildfires, 2.8 times more crop failures, 2.6 times more droughts, 2.8 times more river floods, and 6.8 times as many heatwaves during their lives than people born in 1960. In this context, an increasing number of children and young people are being driven from their homes. Young people on the move may face a number of challenges including a heightened risk of exploitation, abuse and other forms of maltreatment, disrupted or total loss of access to education and/or livelihoods, and developmental challenges resulting from food insecurity and health conditions - many of which are exacerbated by a lack of access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in temporary shelters or informal settlements. Youth engaged in relevant policy processes under the YAP can not only highlight these challenges to policymakers, but also provide recommendations as to how EU external action can best address them to facilitate safe and dignified movement in the context of climate change.

Though engagement under the YAP is limited to people aged 10-24, youth can promote a holistic approach to the protection of young people by also advocating for the rights of young children and future generations. In doing so, they should emphasise that “youth”, “children” and “future generations” are not homogenous groups and encourage the EU to acknowledge and address intersectional vulnerabilities in the context of climate-related human mobility. In order to facilitate this, the EU should ensure a diversity of participation under the YAP. 

An Important Entry Point

Evidently, youth engaged under the YAP have a unique opportunity to drive the development of an anticipatory and rights-based approach to human mobility in the context of climate change. While this blog has highlighted that such an approach includes facilitating safe and dignified movement, it is important to recognise that there is no one-size fits all solution and that a number of complementary actions should be taken to ensure that human mobility in the context of climate change is addressed in a comprehensive and coherent manner in EU external action.
 

About the author:

Florien van Weerelt is a human rights professional with a strong interest in the relationship between human rights, climate change and the environment, and human mobility. She holds an LLM in International Human Rights Law from Lund University and an LLB from UCL.

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

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