Climate change, mobility, law and human rights

The issue of climate displaced persons has become one of the icons of the human consequences of climate change. These displacements oblige us to question the law at many levels (international, regional, national) and call for a multidisciplinary legal approach within human rights law, international migration law, refugee law, environmental law, etc. It is inappropriate to categorize persons who are displaced due to climate change as ‘climate refugees’ in view of the legal definition of a refugee provided by the Geneva Convention relating to the status of refugees. We trace the limits of the conventional approach, illustrating that it is now outdated. The need for the protection of climate displaced persons has been identified and the issue is becoming increasingly prominent in international negotiations, in expert and academic studies as well as in the advocacy work of NGOs. This chapter will also examine existing and future alternative proposals for the protection of environmentally displaced persons.