Migration, Disasters, Climate Change and Environmental Degradation at the International Migration Review Forum 2022

Watch live the IMRF 2022

In the Global Compact for Safe Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), Member States decided that the International Migration Review Forum (hereafter called IMRF) will serve as the primary intergovernmental platform to discuss and share progress on the implementation of all aspects of the Global Compact, including as it relates to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and with the participation of all relevant stakeholders. The IMRF shall take place every four years beginning in 2022.

The Forum will take place from 17 to 20 May 2022, under the auspices of the General Assembly at United Nations Headquarters in New York. 

The IMRF will be composed of four interactive multi-stakeholder round tables, an informal interactive multi-stakeholder hearing, a policy dialogue and a plenary, as well as a number of side events. On the last day, on 20 May 2022,  an intergovernmentally agreed Progress Declaration will be adopted, outlining progress and future commitments in advancing GCM implementation.

Read the entire IMRF background note for more details, including the IMRF format.

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the Nexus Disasters, Climate Change and Environmental Degradation

The adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (hereafter called GCM) and of the Paris Agreement on climate change are landmark developments that are bringing visibility to the migration and climate change nexus. The acknowledgment and inclusion of environmental drivers of migration in the GCM signals the strong commitments of States to prepare for future scenarios of migration, as well as those afoot today. Several Objectives of the GCM address the adverse impacts of disasters, climate change and environmental degradation.

Objective 2 of the GCM calls for inter alia minimizing disasters, climate change and environmental degradation that compel people to move (Objective 2, para 16). Furthermore, Objective 5 promotes regular pathways for those moving in the context of slow and sudden onset events and processes (Objective 5, para g and h), and Objective 7 aims to address and reduce vulnerabilities in migration. At the same time, the integration of migration issues in the Paris Agreement and the work under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is another milestone. Read here for an analysis of the integration of human mobility considerations in the UNFCCC.

Via the Task Force on Displacement (TFD), established under the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts and its Strategic workstream (d): Enhanced cooperation and facilitation in relation to human mobility, including migration, displacement and planned relocation, States, the UN system, and civil society have sought solutions at the nexus of climate change and migration.

Given the strong commitments of States on migration in the context of disasters, climate change and environmental degradation in the GCM as well as in the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, there is a significant opportunity for the UN system to strengthen our concrete, coherent and joined-up responses to address challenges and maximize opportunities linked to migration and the protection of the human rights of migrants in a changing climate. For the first time, the annual workplan of the UN Network on Migration includes a thematic priority on climate change and migration. The strategic goal of this thematic priority is to ensure that the climate discourse fully embraces the migration dimension and vice versa, including that outcomes at upcoming COPs, the IMRF, and the Global Stock-take of the Paris Agreement comprise concrete, actionable recommendations in this regard.

IOM Engagement on the Nexus Disasters, Climate Change and Environmental Degradation at IMRF 2022

One of IOM`s priority is to address migration in the context of disasters, the adverse effects of climate change and environmental degradation.

Since 2018, the impacts of climate change on human mobility and migration have continued to worsen. Given the increased evidence of human mobility linked to disasters, climate change and environmental degradation, it is now critical to link the implementation of the GCM commitments with those in the Paris Agreement, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.  

• Accelerate adaptation action and policies, including by strengthening National Adaptation Plans, in order to avert and minimize displacement and reduce the risk of exposure of vulnerable populations to climate change and hazards;  
• Enable predictable and sustainable funding and technological support to assist vulnerable countries to address the multi dimensions of climate change and its impacts; 
• Strengthen the implementation of regular migration pathways when displacement in the context of disasters, climate change and environmental degradation is unavoidable, and ensure policy coherence in addressing environment, climate change, disaster management and human mobility, by adopting whole of government and whole of society approaches.     

Source: IOM Briefing Note - Priority Areas for the International Migration Review Forum 

The IMRF side events on human mobility in the context of disasters, climate change and environmental degradation: