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Climate Change
The Storm Ahead
The Earth's climate is changing, and changing at a rate that has exceeded most scientific forecasts. Some families and communities have already started to suffer from the negative side of climate change, forced to leave their homes in search of a new beginning.
For UNHCR, the consequences of climate change are enormous. Scarce natural resources such as drinking water are likely to become even more limited. Many crops and some livestock are unlikely to survive in certain locations if conditions become too hot and dry, or too cold and wet. Food security is an immediate concern in many parts of the world.
People will have to try and adapt to this situation, but for many this will mean a conscious move to another place if they are to survive. This has the potential to spark conflicts with other communities, as an increasing number of people compete for a decreasing amount of resources.
In addition to working on vital human rights issues relating to population displacement induced by climate change, UNHCR will need to adapt much of its environment-related planning and work to deal with climate change. This is expected to be a major challenge in the 21st Century.
Presentations on Climate Change
- Climate change and forced migration hotspots: From humanitarian response to area-wide adaptation, by Jean‐François Durieux, Deputy Director, UNHCR Division of Operational Services, 6 April 2009
- A powerpoint on climate change by UNHCR Senior Policy Adviser José Riera
- Planning for the Inevitable: an address by Deputy High Commissioner L. Craig Johnstone
- The Climate Change Future is Now: an address by Deputy High Commissioner L. Craig Johnstone
- Address by UNHCR Senior Adviser on Climate Change Yoichiro Tsuchida in Bonn, October 2008
- Powerpoint presentation by UNHCR Senior Adviser on Climate Change Yoichiro Tsuchida in Bonn, October 2008
UNHCR Submissions to Meetings of the AWG-LCA, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
- Non Paper: Comments and Proposed Revisions to the Negotiating Text Prepared by the Chair of the UNFCCC Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action
- Forced Displacement in the Context of Climate Change: Challenges for States Under International Law
- Climate Change and Statelessness: An Overview
- Protecting the Health of Vulnerable People from the Humanitarian Consequences of Climate Change and Climate Related Disasters
- Climate Change, Migration and Displacement: Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation Options
