International Environmental Law and Migration

The international community has long recognized that worldwide environmental changes affect national and international migration patterns. However, in 1992, the issue of environment-induced migration and displacement was not addressed as a major concern at the Rio Earth Summit. From the three new forums addressing environmental and development concerns, initiated in Rio, only the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) paid modest attention to environmental migration. Neither the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), nor the Biodiversity Convention (CBD), explicitly referred to the phenomenon of environment-induced human mobility. However, since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlighted migration and displacement as consequences of global warming in 1990, governmental and non-governmental organisations, together with academics and some developing countries, have been advocating to bring climate-induced migration under the umbrella of the UNFCCC. Supported by an emerging knowledge base on environmental migration, the humanitarian community finally managed to put climate-induced mobility on the negotiation table, and in 2010 at COP16 in Cancun, the issue appeared for the first time in an official COP decision. Paragraph 14(f) of the Cancun Adaptation Framework now invites states to take “measures to enhance understanding, coordination and cooperation with regard to climate change induced displacement, migration and planned relocation, where appropriate, at national, regional and international levels”. The inclusion of human mobility in the Cancun Adaptation Framework represents a milestone for the issue of environmental migration, as it is the first ever mentioning of migration in an agreed COP outcome. The paragraph, although not legally binding, has a strong political value, as it is situated in an important part of the Adaptation Framework. Migration now features in a list of activities that can be considered ‘adaptive’, and might qualify for adaptation funding in the future. Furthermore, paragraph 14(f) could even encourage other environmental policy forums to address the issue of environmental migration. After all, as the UNFCCC regime can only address climate-induced migration, it does not take account of environmental push factors other than climate change impacts. 20 years after the Rio Earth Summit, this paper describes how migration has entered the UNFCCC regime, and examines the implications and added value of a migration-related provision in international climate law. More in particular, it sets out to analyse the legal value of paragraph 14(f) of the Cancun Adaptation Framework, and aims to provide guidance on the implementation of this provision through the UNFCCC regime. The author adopts a critical stance, discussing whether international environmental law is the appropriate legal framework at all to address environment-induced migration