The Climate Crisis and Human Migration: Advocating for Climate Refugees on World Refugee Day

The Climate Crisis and Human Migration: Advocating for Climate Refugees on World Refugee Day

By Cale Eastin (2024-25 Iowa UNA College Ambassador from Iowa State University)

The United Nation’s work at the intersection of climate change and refugee issues is central to its work to promote both sustainable development and human rights. The international community’s commemoration of World Refugee Day on June 20 provides an opportunity to advocate for people who have been displaced from their homes due to conflicts and natural disasters worsened by the climate crisis.

Despite the observable connections many conflicts happening in our world have to climate change’s impact on the lives of countless people across the globe, official definitions of refugee even by the UN do not explicitly include displacement by disasters and climate change. There are legitimate reasons not to redefine climate migrants as climate refugees. To do so might result in a legal quagmire and could muddle current programs serving people displaced by the migrant crisis. However, conflicts stemming from natural resource disruption have seen a resurgence on the world stage recently with the Pakistan and India skirmishes being just one example. Even if most migration due to disasters happens internally, there is still legitimate room for discussion on how climate change effects are increasing the types and frequencies of conflicts and displacements.

The Migration Data Portal is a database and toolset drawing on information gather by the UN, UNICEF, and other international organizations. The portal provides an interactive map module that catalogues the movement of people by several indicators, including internal displacement by disasters. Even data-rich sources like the Migration Data Portal have limitations in communicating climate change’s impact on the global refugee crisis. Tying displacement by disaster only to movement within a country can still leave many questions open. How many were forced to move out of a country due to disasters? How many were displaced by disasters like earthquakes rather than climate change-induced flooding? When people are listed as fleeing from conflict, was there exacerbation due to droughts made more common by climate change? Continued support for climate action in the UN helps to ensure that the climate crisis remains a critical international priority and helps ensure that the media provide essential coverage of this issue and that governments around the world continue to investigate these questions.

Extreme weather events are happening at greater frequency than in the past. Scientists have been able to document connections between the increase in extreme weather events and climate change through a variety of methods, including climate models and observation of the shift in extreme weather events over time. Although it is not possible to explicitly connect a particular extreme weather event to a specific country’s contribution to the climate crisis, it is worth noting that countries that have historically emitted the most greenhouse gases are also in some of the best positions to lead adoption of adaptation and mitigation strategies for climate change. The wealth, resources, and technology accumulated from development in high income countries means that these countries are typically further along in discovering renewable energy technologies. Providing guidance and assistance to low-income countries will help save lives now by adapting infrastructure to deal with floods, droughts, and disease. Furthermore, the lives of both current and future generations will be improved by reducing the rate of climate change and giving better chances to people around the world to participate in emerging research and rising economies.  

In 2025, the world’s population is now facing challenges that have been long predicted by climate scientists. It is essential that we continue to support UN climate action initiatives, especially at a time when science-based monitoring and solutions are under assault in many parts of the world. Advocates for climate action also must continue to support UN initiatives serving people displaced by the climate crisis.