Bacon Center Climate change has the potential to displace tens of millions of people as its full effects are felt in the coming decades. The most immediate threats are in the form of storms of increasing intensity, such as Cyclone Nargis in Burma, greater incidence of drought and floods that make livelihoods based on traditional patterns of economic activity unsustainable, and increased conflicts over access to scarce resources. The war in Darfur derives, in part, from conflict over scarce resources as the desert expands.

While the most dramatic impacts, such as the disappearance of island states like the Maldives, are many decades in the future, in the short term increased displacement and the greater frequency of large-scale natural disasters present significant challenges to an already stressed international humanitarian system. Advocating for a more effective response to climate displacement is therefore inextricably linked to other priority issues for Refugees International, including improving the global response to neglected crises and internal displacement, strengthening UN peacekeeping efforts, and achieving citizenship for stateless people.

FOR MORE INFORMATION (external links):

• "Climate Change and Displacement" by the Forced Migration Review
• "The Humanitarian Costs of Climate Change" by the Feinstein International Center, Tufts University
• "Towards a Convention for Persons Displaced by Climate Change"from a seminar presentation at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, the London School of Economics
• "Future floods of refugees - A comment on climate change, conflict and forced migration" by the Norwegian Refugee Council