The 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), originally scheduled for 2020, will take place in Glasgow, Scotland, from 1 to 12 November 2021, under the presidency of the United Kingdom. 

Climate Migration at COP26

What is at stake at COP26? What is at stake at COP26, in terms of climate migration?

COP26 represents a key political moment for states to reaffirm their ambition to fully operationalize the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. One major development is linked to states submitting new and updated national climate action plans.  Parties are expected to put forward revised ‘nationally determined contributions’ (NDCs), containing details of climate change mitigation and adaptation action ahead of COP26. COP26 is also the first COP following the USA’s rejoining the Convention, which is expected to create a positive political momentum to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement (read IOM`s Written Contribution to the Biden Administration in Response to the Executive Order on Climate Change and Migration, 4 February 2021).

What is at stake at COP26, in terms of climate migration?

I. Enhancing visibility and building consensus with UNFCCC parties and climate science

As in previous years, COP26 represents the opportunity to bring visibility to the climate migration nexus and advance discussions on the topic within the biggest intergovernmental forum dedicated to climate change policy and action. 

In the last decade, issues of migration and human mobility have increasingly been considered within the work of the UNFCCC and the annual COP meetings - notably thanks to IOM’s active involvement- and they are now fully institutionalized with dedicated work programmes under the UNFCCC. 

The relevance of the climate-migration nexus is confirmed by contemporary climate science. For instance, the last three reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) make extensive references to the impacts of climate change on migration (IPCC Oceans and Cryosphere, IPCC Land Report and the IPCC 1.5-Degree C Special Report). 

The reports show that land degradation is already negatively impacting the livelihoods and well-being of at least 3.2 billion people, while sea level rise, associated with a 2°C warmer world, could submerge the homelands of 280 million people by the end of this century across the world. It is today widely recognized that environmental migration is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that can amplify existing vulnerabilities, but also allow people to build resilience. There is now increasing awareness that migration policy options should be considered to tackle this issue. 

II. Building support for the operationalization of the Recommendations of the Taskforce on Displacement

In 2015, the Paris Climate Agreement requested the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (WIM/Excom) to establish a Taskforce on Displacement to develop recommendations for integrated approaches to advert, minimize and address displacement related to the adverse impacts of climate change and disaster. 

After the establishment of the Task Force in 2016 (IOM is a founding member), states adopted in 2018 at COP24 the recommendations made by the Task Force (Decision 10/CP.24) and the mandate of the Taskforce was renewed. The Taskforce developed a new workplan (Workplan Phase 2), with the extensive support of IOM. 

IOM at COP26

• Provide technical support to states parties to the UN Climate Convention (UNFCCC) and other actors

• Produce evidence, technical guidance and share good practices