Climate and migration: what now for the UK on the global stage?

This is the second post on the UK’s policy options regarding climate-driven migration. It's part of a series of four short posts. The first one looked at the context and why policy-making on this issue is difficult for the UK.

This post examines the global policy processes that attempt to govern climate-driven migration and the role the UK could play in them.

When I started working on climate-driven migration, there were very few global fora where states met to consider climate-driven migration. Even if governments wanted to cooperate with each other or reach some kind of agreement about addressing climate-driven migration, there wasn’t really anywhere to do this.

Fifteen years ago, this was used as a bad faith argument against action. I met with several government officials back then who said words to the effect of “oh well, we’d love to do something, but there’s no global process to join”.

The situation is very different now. There are multiple global processes where states can cooperate on the issue. In fact, it’s reached the point where just tracking developments in all of them would require a small team.

The UK has not been deeply involved in these international processes. Other countries have led, and the UK has been notably missing. Simply showing up would be a start. Playing a constructive role would be even better.

The most obvious first step would be to engage with the Platform on Disaster Displacement. This is a state-led international process focused on the rights of people who cross borders as a result of disasters (including climate-related disasters). Over many years of work, the nations involved have agreed on a framework for protecting the rights of their citizens should they be displaced in this way. The framework is non-binding, so it’s politically low stakes.

States meet every year to affirm their commitment to cooperation and develop future projects together. Getting involved with the Platform on Disaster Displacement and playing an active, cooperative role would be a tangible first step for the new government.

The UK has historically had a strong presence within the UN climate change negotiations. Among the many strands of negotiation, climate-driven displacement is becoming an increasingly prominent theme at the annual negotiations. But the UK has not been deeply involved in these strands.

The UN climate negotiations are unlikely to ever produce an agreement about the rights of people on the move. But key issues around finance and cooperation are negotiated. Historically, the climate negotiations have created task forces and working groups focused on cooperation and data sharing on climate-driven displacement. Crucial negotiations about adaptation finance - a key element of preventing displacement - also take place. The UK could be more supportive of these strands of negotiation.

There is already a global agreement protecting the rights of people displaced by climate-related disasters. The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement create “refugee-like” protection for people who are displaced but don’t cross an international border. The principles cover displacement driven by a variety of forces, including disasters.

The Principles set out how governments should treat people when they are forced to move internally. They ask states to provide IDPs with the same rights and freedoms as people who haven’t been displaced.

The Principles obviously don’t cover every aspect of climate-driven mobility. They don’t protect people who cross borders or people whose movement looks more like economic migration. But given that a huge amount of climate-driven movement is internal and driven by sudden disasters, the Principles are important.

The Principles have already been defined and agreed by governments, so what role remains for the UK? Like all global agreements, they can be implemented well or badly, ignored or adhered to, kept relevant or neglected.

The Principles were agreed in 1996 before climate-driven displacement had gained recognition. They weren’t crafted with this form of displacement in mind. Keeping the Principles relevant to contemporary forms of displacement requires continued thought and discussion. It requires ongoing diplomacy, and the UK could play an active role in fostering this cooperation.

The UK is involved in several other global processes more loosely related to climate-driven migration. The Sendai Framework is a global, non-binding agreement that sets out how states should reduce the disruption caused to people’s lives by disasters. The UK is already a signatory to the Framework. However, the UK could show more leadership by stepping up its involvement. The same applies to the Global Compact on Refugees. This global agreement recognises the connection between climate change and migration. It doesn’t go much beyond acknowledging this reality. But the Compact has opened the door to bolder international cooperation in the future. Again, the UK could champion strengthening this theme within the Compact.

None of these global processes cover everything. It’s not about picking one. Instead, the UK government needs to use its significant international clout to back all of the processes on the international stage.

Next time: what the UK could do with its existing visas.?