Forced displacement and climate change: Time for global governance
| Date | 01 December 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702020968944 |
| Author | Jonathan Kent,Rosemary McCarney |
| Published date | 01 December 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Policy Brief |
Policy Brief
Forced displacement and
climate change: Time for
global governance
Rosemary McCarney
Massey College, University of Toronto
Jonathan Kent
World Refugee and Migration Council
Abstract
Climate change and its relatively slow-onset effects like sea level rise, desertification,
and water salinization and associated sudden onset effects like floods, hurricanes and
droughts, is perhaps the major emerging risk to rich and poor nations and the most
vulnerable people within them. But the current system of global governance is entirely
insufficient to cope with, let alone effectively respond to, the looming crisis of climate
displacement. This policy brief discusses the current state of the global governance of
climate displacement and identifies a number of substantive and organizational legal and
policy elements in need of rapid implementation and development. The intent of this
brief is to inform public debate and policy discourse on the challenges and opportuni-
ties toward improving the global governance of climate displacement.
Keywords
Forced migration, climate change, global governance, human rights, international
cooperation
Corresponding author:
Jonathan Kent, World Refugee and Migration Council, 44 Eccles Street, #200, Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 6S4,
Canada.
Email: jdkent75@gmail.com
International Journal
2020, Vol. 75(4) 652–661
!The Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/0020702020968944
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