Event
28 Jan 2022

Symposium on environment and displacement: Roots causes and implications

  • Date
    25 May 2016, 14:30pm
  • Organizer

    UNEP

Description: Displacement and the Environment: Root Causes and Implications, will address one of the major humanitarian issues of our time: the unprecedented numbers of refugees and forced migrants around the world currently. The symposium will seek to understand how environmental degradation is driving human displacement and forced migration, and what climate change and growing resource scarcity might mean for such flows in future. It will also look at the environmental implications of massive displacement in terms of rapid urbanization and poorly managed refugee camps and the necessary coordinated humanitarian response.

By the end of 2015 the world was hosting more than 60 million refugees and internally displaced people fleeing from war, persecution and poverty in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Eritrea, Myanmar, Somalia and elsewhere.1  Since 2008 on average 26.4 million people million have been forced from their homes each year as a result of disasters brought on by natural hazards, a rate that is equivalent to one person every second.2 These figures are set against a much larger background of increased mobility and migration in the 21st century: 250 million people live and work outside the country of their birth. 750 million people migrate within their own countries.3

The arrival of more than 1 million refugees/ migrants in Europe in 2015 has captured international headlines. However, it is important to remember that the European influx is a fraction of the overall refugee burden around the world, which has led to refugee camps existing for many decades in some developing nations.

The General Assembly Declaration of the 2013 High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development “Recognize[d] the need to consider the role that environmental factors may play in migration”.4 This proposed UNEA event would be a contribution to this larger discussion. In addition, it could provide an opportunity for Environment Ministers to contribute to the UNGA September Summit on managing large-scale movements of migrants and refugees. Finally it links to the “Leave no-one behind” theme of the High Level Political Forum. 

In terms of UNEA itself, the event links to the overall theme of “Healthy Environment, Healthy People” as forced migration can be a visible symptom of environmental stress and forced migrants are particularly vulnerable to all sorts of environmental and health risks. Projections of future climate change paint a picture of much higher levels of displacement in future.

The aims of the proposed event are threefold:

  • To focus attention of policy makers on various dimensions of environmental degradation and forced migration, both at present and in the future under current projections of climate change and land degradation, in the context of the 2030 agenda and as ‘bridge’ between the humanitarian and development spheres;
  • To bring together leading thinkers, agencies, initiatives and governments concerned about the links between forced migration and the environment for a discussion on shared priorities and concrete next steps; and,
  • To draw a link between the World Humanitarian Summit and UNEA and to discuss possible areas for increased collaboration between the environmental and humanitarian communities.

Participants and practical arrangements

Date: 25 May 2016

Time: 2.30pm-5.30pm
Venue: Conference Room 1 (Webcasting available)

Draft agenda

Opening

  • Welcoming address: Mr Achim Steiner, Executive Director, UNEP
  • Statement: Mr Jan Eliasson, Deputy Secretary General

Session 1: Root causes of displacement and the environment

Moderator: Zain Verjee (tbc)

Screening of “Environmental root causes of displacement” video

Panel discussion (60-70 minutes)
Provisional list of panelists

  • H.E. Anote Tong, Former President of Kiribati
  • Mr William Lacey Swing, Director General, International Organisation for Migration
  • Ms. Myrna Cunningham, Former Chairperson of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
  • Ms. Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme
  • Ms. Shamsad Akhtar, Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

For more information, visit the UNEA website