ABSTRACT
As early as 1990, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that one of the most significant impacts of climate change would be on human mobility. 1 Climate change is anticipated to both trigger forced displacement and contribute to voluntary migration both within countries and across international borders, in some cases permanently. While at present there is insufficient data regarding the full extent to which climate change is contributing to human mobility, there is ample evidence that events directly linked to climate change are already acting to influence population movements. For example, climate change–related effects on the Arctic – which is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet – are already forcing Alaskan native communities to retreat inland. 2 While the future magnitude of displacement and migration owing to climate change will depend on both the extent to which governments successfully act to curb greenhouse gas emissions and the ability of vulnerable communities to successfully adapt, it is likely that in the absence of ambitious action, hundreds of millions of people could be uprooted due to climate change in the coming decades. The threat that this presents to the enjoyment of human rights triggers an obligation of states to take action to protect at-risk populations:
