Climate Displacement Hub

For 80 years, Global Refuge has assisted forcibly uprooted people from around the globe. But increasingly, we are seeing an unprotected group seeking refuge: persons who are displaced, in whole or in part, due to climate disasters.

Thumbnail for a video entitled 'What is Climate Displacement? A Climate Disaster Displacement Explainer'

Climate-related events such as floods, storms, droughts, and other phenomena are increasingly forcing people from their homes. At its current pace, climate change is expected to be one of the key drivers of displacement in the 21st century.

Most climate-related displacement occurs within countries, with affected people moving to other areas of their countries of origin. Displacement from disasters is also often temporary—as families try to rebuild after floods or storms. But climate-related displacement is expected to become increasingly protracted and permanent when trends like sea-level rise and desertification threaten to make certain areas permanently less habitable or even uninhabitable. Climate-related displacement will only continue to raise protection and human rights concerns as people cross international borders to seek shelter and safety.

Currently, there is a wide gap between the human rights threats posed by climate change and the protections offered through current law and policy. Nevertheless, Global Refuge believes this gap can steadily be closed through new and existing law— a combination of measures to provide protection and assistance for populations in climate-vulnerable areas. We need to reimagine and make substantial changes to our immigration system to protect these populations vulnerable to climate displacement.

Resources

Global Refuge and our partners believes the United States can expand protection to climate-affected refugees through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

Read the letter from Refugee Council USA leaders.

Read Global Refuge’s recommendations for the Biden administration, Congress, and all our leaders in our Climate Displacement Report.

As we share in our Faith Response, Christians are called to care for God’s creation, including the planet, its people, and all its fantastic creatures and natural wonders.

Read Our Faith Response

Climate Displacement FAQ

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) defines climate migration as “the movement of a person or groups of persons who, predominantly for reasons of sudden or progressive change in the environment due to climate change, are obliged to leave their habitual place of residence, or choose to do so, either temporarily or permanently, within a state or across and international border.”

At Global Refuge, we refer to the populations moving due to sudden- and slow- onset hydro-meteorological or other climate-related events as “climate displaced persons” and the type of forced migration as “climate displacement.”

Sudden- and slow- onset climate disasters have unique and severe impacts on vulnerable populations. Sudden-onset disasters, including flash floods, severe storms, hurricanes, and large-scale forest fires, usually cause short-term, internal displacement—i.e. people are displaced but return after a storm ends or when flood waters recede. In some cases, where individuals and communities are displaced annually or semi-annually, on-going climate change will exacerbate the impact and severity of sudden-onset disasters.

Slow-onset climate disasters, including desertification, sea-level rise, ocean acidification, air pollution, shifting rain patterns, and loss of biodiversity, may cause permanent damage to vulnerable regions. Individuals displaced due to slow-onset disasters are often fleeing uninhabitable environments that, unlike sudden-onset disasters, may not improve over time. People displaced due to slow-onset climate disasters will be especially vulnerable to protracted displacement in the years to come.
Under intermediate, high, and very high emission scenarios in recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, global temperatures are likely to increase by at least 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the 21st century. This level of warming, which climate data shows is linked to growing greenhouse gas emissions, is already causing major consequences for our planet and is contributing to ice sheet melt, glacial retreat, ocean warming and acidification, loss of biodiversity, and shifting weather patterns.

These environmental changes associated with global warming are shifting the severity and impacts of El Niño and La Niña weather patterns, which cause more severe storms including monsoon rains, flash floods, and storms like typhoons, hurricanes, and cyclones. These changes are also linked to sea level rise, desertification, heat waves, coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion, and plant and animal species extinction. These escalating climate disasters driven by climate change and global carbon emissions make it challenging for communities to remain resilient and will increasingly displace people over time.
Climate displaced persons are not explicitly protected under the 1951 Refugee Convention, its 1967 Protocol, or international law more broadly. The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol established the legal definition of a refugee and the modern international system to respond to forced displacement. Under the Convention, a refugee is a person who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin due to persecution or well-founded fears of persecution based on protected grounds, including race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

Displacement due to climate change does not neatly fit into one of these protected grounds, which form the basis for a refugee determination under U.S. or international law. Refugees are afforded certain protections and rights such as non-refoulement, the principle that countries should not forcibly return an individual to their country of origin where they may face persecution. On the contrary, climate displaced persons who are not otherwise considered refugees do not receive the same protections that are afforded to refugees that meet the Refugee Convention definition. Certain regional agreements, such as the 1969 Organization for African Unity (OAU) Convention or the 1984 Cartagena Declaration, feature a more expansive refugee definition that includes individuals who are fleeing “events seriously disturbing public order,” which has been used to build arguments for broader protections for those affected by climate disaster.

While this language does not yet exist in a broader international convention, its regional usage and implementation does provide optimism for a future where there are international protections provided to climate displaced persons.

As climate change continues to fuel sudden- and slow- onset climate disasters and international displacement increases as a result, the international community will need to formulate protections for communities that are progressively vulnerable to climate disasters.
As climate change continues to fuel sudden- and slow- onset climate disasters, the international community must come together to address the systemic challenges and hurdles that face communities vulnerable to climate displacement, which are also the communities that contribute the fewest carbon emissions to climate change globally.

There remains no explicit protection for climate displaced persons under international law for those not already protected under other conventions. There is also no consensus on the terminology to describe people that are displaced due to climate disasters (i.e., climate/environmental refugee vs. climate displaced persons vs. climate migrants), a fact that encapsulates a deeper ideological debate among experts on climate displacement. The nexus between climate change and human mobility is nebulous since decisions to migrate are often multi-causal due to the way climate change interacts with other drivers of migration, such as fragility, conflict, repression of marginalized groups, and poor governance.

Due to a variety of factors, including the primarily internal nature of climate displacement, there are significant gaps in data, research and projections focused on international climate displacement. This part of the challenge also makes the call for an international response to climate displacement more difficult since it primarily occurs within national boundaries. In recent years, the politicization of migration has fueled negative and misplaced perceptions of migrants—which hampers efforts to build consensus on immigration policy, let alone areas of immigration policy that overlap with climate policy.
The White House Report on the Impact of Climate Change on Migration in 2021 stated:

“The United States does have a national interest in creating a new legal pathway for individualized humanitarian protection in the United States for individuals who establish that they are fleeing serious, credible threats to their life or physical integrity, including as a result of the direct or indirect impacts of climate change.”

Under the Climate Displaced Persons Act (CDPA), the United States could create this pathway in law through a visa-based program that admits individuals based on meeting the definition of a climate displaced person.

In the absence of Congressional action to reform immigration law in a comprehensive and rights-based manner, the U.S. government can still make progress on protections for climate displaced persons through the bold and creative use of existing programs and mechanisms. Initiatives under the Biden administration, such as the Welcome Corps and Safe Mobility Offices, should be deployed in a way that maximizes protections for refugees who face climate-related hazards. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can make Temporary Protected Status (TPS) extensions, designations, and redesignations of countries that experience climate-related shocks, ensuring protection for those who are physically present in the United States and unable to safely return to their home countries.

The United States can explore how other pathways, such as labor visas or family reunification mechanisms, can help climate displaced persons reach safety. The U.S. government can also work to develop bilateral or (sub-)regional agreements to facilitate temporary, circular, or even permanent migration from climate-vulnerable countries—with the Compacts of Free Association with the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau as a potential frame of reference.

However, there is no substitute for global action that prevents the worst effects of the climate crisis and thus the worst-case scenarios for climate displacement. Disaster displacement from climate change can indeed be minimized, ameliorated, or even prevented if communities are given the resources and support to stay in their homes in safety and dignity. To that end, the U.S. must become a climate resiliency leader by adopting sustainable practices to reduce emissions and helping frontline communities adapt to the changing climate.
For years, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS)—and now Global Refuge—has been at the cutting edge of policy and advocacy work on climate displacement.

LIRS was one of the first nonprofits in the United States to endorse the Climate Displaced Persons Act (CDPA), a first-of-its-kind proposal in Congress to create a protection pathway for climate displaced persons.

“At a time when we are witnessing increased global displacement of people due to extreme weather, flooding and drought, it makes sense that we as a nation expand humanitarian relief and resettlement as a shining example of moral leadership in the face of 21st century environmental challenges,” President and CEO Krish O’Mara Vignarajah said, marking the CDPA’s first introduction in September 2019.

Early in the Biden administration, LIRS published a climate displacement report outlining tangible ways the federal government could provide protections for climate displaced persons.

In 2022, LIRS supported efforts promoting the use of priority group designations within the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program to prioritize climate impacted groups for resettlement. It also launched this webpage, the Climate Displacement Hub, to provide its supporters with secular and faith-based resources to be better educated and civically engaged on climate displacement policy.

In 2023, LIRS staff were lead experts on advising the offices of Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Nydia Velázquez as they worked to reintroduce the Climate Displaced Persons Act in the 118th Congress. LIRS coordinated civil society research efforts that were integral to the more expansive definition of a climate-displaced person in the updated CDPA, one that included individuals displaced by slow-onset events and those whose displacement overlapped with other factors, such as human rights abuses. LIRS also supported Refugee Council USA efforts urging the U.S. Department of State to expand access to protection for climate displaced persons through recent initiatives in U.S. refugee processing, such as the Welcome Corps private sponsorship program or the Safe Mobility Offices (SMOs).

In 2024, this organization, now as Global Refuge, continues to lead in the climate displacement policy and advocacy space. It chairs Refugee Council USA’s Climate Displacement Working Group, which serves as a central convenor of Congressional and administrative advocacy among U.S. refugee resettlement agencies and U.S.-based refugee advocacy organizations.

Global Refuge, in partnership with leading climate displacement colleagues, continues to call for more details on the implementation of an interagency policy process on climate-related displacement and for stronger protections for climate displaced persons. Global Refuge works closely with congressional offices to provide more lasting protections of those displaced by climate disaster.