‘Disappointing’: The US’s first climate migration report falls flat
“We went from a bold call and vision to, well, nothing.”
María Paula Rubiano A. & Adam Mahoney
Published
Oct 25, 2021
On Thursday, the National Security Council released a long-anticipated report on what environmental advocates are calling one the most pressing issues of our time: climate change-induced migration. The report is the first U.S. government report on the effects of climate on migration and arrives right as President Biden is slated to attend a major United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland known as COP26.
The 37-page report, which was commissioned by President Joe Biden in February with an August deadline, notes that climate migration, both within countries and between them, is already here, but is set to get a lot worse. Climate change is expected to displace as many as 143 million people, nearly three percent of the populations of Latin America, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, by 2050. Roughly a quarter of those are expected to migrate internationally as a result of their displacement. The sheer mass of migrants will have “significant implications for international security, instability, conflict, and geopolitics,” the report says. This includes climate change-induced wars and conflicts over natural resources, namely water.
National security officials suggested a series of both preventive and adaptive steps in the report, such as increasing U.S. aid to countries regularly ravaged by severe weather events, more robust support for U.S. climate scientists to track these events, and legislative actions to protect climate migrants and offer asylum. They also urge the U.S. government to establish an interagency working group on climate migration — much like the White House’s interagency working group on climate change — to coordinate its efforts to address the challenge. That group would be the one in charge of drafting U.S. policy, strategies, and budgets to help those impacted by climate change and migration, either domestically or internationally. Although it isn’t clear how or when the group will be created, it seems to be the best shot to put in motion policy changes, according to advocates.
https://grist.org/climate/disappointing-the-uss-first-climate-migration-report-falls-flat/
