Climate Change Is Forcing People to Migrate and the World Doesn’t Have a Plan

The UN climate talks scheduled for December will review how governments should treat refugees fleeing the effects of climate change. The UN 1951 Refugee Convention covers persecution, but not a changing climate, and in the meantime such refugees “remain in a bizarre legal and political limbo.” Aura Bogado, writing for Grist, argues that “Developed countries, which have emitted more carbon in the process of their economic development, have seen far less devastation — and when they do, they’re also more like to be better equipped to deal with the consequences because of the wealth they’ve amassed.” Representatives of medical, disaster, and human-rights groups anticipate that the international community will eventually develop a framework. – YaleGlobal