A window into what we are reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program

2024 World Migration Report Highlights Climate-Food-Mobility Nexus (International Organization for Migration)

The International Organization for Migration’s flagship World Migration Report 2024 highlights a wide variety of factors contributing to global migration, including conflict, economic or political insecurity, and climate change. Between 2020 and 2022 the number of asylum seekers increased more than 30% to 5.4 million people. The report centers climate change’s impact on food security as a core driver of migration. In 2022, 275 million people faced acute food insecurity, which represents a 146% increase since 2016.

Sudden-onset events, including extreme weather such as flooding, have already impacted a wide variety of communities in Africa and South Asia, as was evident in Pakistan’s 2022 flooding that destroyed thousands of hectares of farmland. Slow-onset climate events such as rising sea levels or drought, have also had immeasurable impacts on food security and migration. In the Americas, for example, rural to urban migration is partly a consequence of prolonged droughts that contribute to food stress in impoverished regions. In addition to contributing to forced migration, climate change may also result in immobility. Some people may choose not to move despite danger due to cultural attachments or family responsibility, or some may be physically or financially unable to move away from hazards.

While migration may be a viable adaptation option for those impacted by climate-induced food insecurity, the ability to migrate successfully is heavily dependent on socio-economic conditions. Displacement related to limited agency, such as insufficient government action or unanticipated loss, can yield negative outcomes in terms of livelihoods or overall well-being. IOM recommends approaches that incorporate lessons from local contexts and indigenous knowledge that focus directly on community wellbeing. For this to be successful, mobilizing climate financing is necessary.

Listen | The Arc | Dr. Yvonne Su on Climate Migration, Equity, and Policy

Activists Say Environmental Rights Treaty Falls Short (Mongabay)

This week, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met to discuss a draft agreement on environmental rights in the region. Many noted this treaty could be groundbreaking for environmental and indigenous defenders in the region, who have been the target of increased repression including threats, attacks, intimidation, and criminalization. This agreement would set international standards that would hold the state and private sector accountable for threatening environmental defenders.

Despite the immense potential, activists have argued that the agreement was watered down to become non-binding and that it has some glaring omissions. This includes lacking protections for rights defenders. Furthermore, some have noted the agreement did not adequately address information access to environmental impact assessments, public participation in decision making, acknowledging indigenous participation, and more. In the face of these omissions, civil society groups have requested an extended public consultation period for the treaty.

The exclusion of Indigenous peoples, who have long defended the environment against detrimental policies and actions, was particularly concerning. Experts argue that to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, ASEAN states must take full responsibility in implementing the agreement in partnership with indigenous communities and civil society.

READ | The Climate Crisis and Southeast Asian Geopolitics

Environmental Threats Increase Risk of Pandemic (Washington Post)

A new study revealed that infection-spreading creatures like mosquitoes and ticks are thriving in warmer temperatures, increasing risk of infectious disease spread in the face of the climate crisis. However, loss of biodiversity was found to have a more significant impact on disease spread than climate change. Levels of mortality and disease in environments impacted by human-caused biodiversity loss were nine times worse than diseases under Earth’s natural biodiversity.

This was the first study to look at the way a wide variety of environmental challenges can compound the risk of disease. It studied human and animal health and a wide variety of pathogens including viruses, bacteria, and fungi. While this has been the most wide-reaching study of its kind, it reinforced the findings of many previous studies, that a warmer world with ravaged ecosystems is more hospitable to parasites.

If diseases among animals become more rampant, the likelihood of “spillover” events that will impact humans increases, as likely occurred with COVID-19 and the ongoing spread of H5N1 bird flu. The one human influence that decreased disease risk was habitat loss, likely as a function of urbanization because cities have better sanitation and health infrastructure. The researchers noted that far more needs to be done to fully understand how human impacts on the environment may build upon each other to contribute to the spread of disease.

READ | Destruction of Habitat and Loss of Biodiversity are Creating the Perfect Conditions for Diseases like COVID-19 to Emerge