The Australia-Tuvalu climate migration treaty is a drop in the ocean
A life buoy has been extended to the inhabitants of Tuvalu, a low Pacific nation where the rise in sea level creates more and more problems. Each year, Australia will grant the residence to 280 Tuvaluans. The agreement could see that everyone currently living in Tuvalu moving in a few decades.
Indeed, the first global climate migration agreement, the Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union will also provide adaptation funds to help those who remain.
Is it a model for the way climate migration can be managed in a prescribed manner, before the disaster strikes? Far from it. To obtain this agreement, Tuvalu must allow Australia a word to say in future security and defense questions. Few other countries are likely to accept similar conditions.
The population of Tuvalu is also very low. Taking around 10,000 climate migrants would be without consequences for a country of 28 million like Australia. Around the world, it is estimated that between 25 million and 1 billion people may be forced to move by 2050 due to climate change and other environmental factors. Where will they go?
One billion people may be forced to move by 2050 due to environmental factors
Many argue that the rich countries that have emitted most of the carbon dioxide that warms the planet have a moral duty to help people moved by climate change. But these types of discussions have not yet been translated by legal recognition or acceptance of forced climate migrants. On the contrary, many higher income nations seem to become more hostile to migrants of all kinds.
There has been a little progress in the establishment of “loss and damage” funds to compensate for low -income countries for destruction caused by global warming. This could help limit the need for climate migration in the future – but the money promised so far is a fraction of what is necessary.
The most important thing that nations should do is limit future warming by reducing emissions – but worldwide, they are still developing. Unfortunately, the Union Falespili is a drop in the ocean, not a turning point of the tide.
Subjects:
- climate change/ /
- global warming
