Date of Award

Spring 2020

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Historical & Political Studies; College of Arts & Sciences

First Advisor

Angela Kachuyevski

Abstract

Climate change has advanced significantly in the last few decades resulting in some of the predicted effects, such as sea level rise, to start to appear and to cause displacement, especially in more vulnerable, developing nations. Though current estimates have found that the majority of the displaced populations will be able to relocate within their country’s borders, there are some nations, such as many of the small island nations in the South Pacific, where internal relocation will not always be an option. The question that will be explored in this paper is, what are the limits to current international policy on climate change-migrants or ‘environmental refugees’ and what sort of framework could be implemented in response to the displaced populations of South Pacific island nations? Using pattern matching, my analysis finds that current international policy regarding displacement caused by the effects of climate change that is forced in nature and requires one to relocate to another state is extremely limited due to these populations not meeting the criteria under the 1951 Refugee Convention or the International Organization on Migration’s Internally Displaced Persons criteria and there are no regional agreements regarding climate change-induced migration; therefore, in order to protect this vulnerable population, the proposed solution to create and implement a new framework, convention, or protocol that is strictly meant for this specific category of persons will best serve this population and best provide the protections needed in the relocation process.

Comments

Politics, Government, and Law (PGL) major

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International Policy and Climate Change-Induced Displacement of South Pacific Island Nation Populations

Climate change has advanced significantly in the last few decades resulting in some of the predicted effects, such as sea level rise, to start to appear and to cause displacement, especially in more vulnerable, developing nations. Though current estimates have found that the majority of the displaced populations will be able to relocate within their country’s borders, there are some nations, such as many of the small island nations in the South Pacific, where internal relocation will not always be an option. The question that will be explored in this paper is, what are the limits to current international policy on climate change-migrants or ‘environmental refugees’ and what sort of framework could be implemented in response to the displaced populations of South Pacific island nations? Using pattern matching, my analysis finds that current international policy regarding displacement caused by the effects of climate change that is forced in nature and requires one to relocate to another state is extremely limited due to these populations not meeting the criteria under the 1951 Refugee Convention or the International Organization on Migration’s Internally Displaced Persons criteria and there are no regional agreements regarding climate change-induced migration; therefore, in order to protect this vulnerable population, the proposed solution to create and implement a new framework, convention, or protocol that is strictly meant for this specific category of persons will best serve this population and best provide the protections needed in the relocation process.