Climate Change ‘Refugees’: On or Off the World Map?

This project considers what international legal obligations countries have towards people displaced by climate change. It investigates whether human-precipitated climate change imposes special responsibilities on countries with high greenhouse gas emissions, and whether they can be enforced by international courts or tribunals. Importantly, it asks whether flight from habitat destruction should be viewed as another facet of traditional international protection, or as a new challenge requiring new solutions.

With estimates of up to 150 million climate change ‘refugees’ by 2050, this is an issue in need of serious and principled legal consideration. Climate-induced displacement is of particular relevance to Australia, given its geographical proximity to islands in the South Pacific where sea levels are swiftly rising. Islanders from some parts of the region have already had to abandon their homes, and more will do so in the near future. Australia is an obvious destination country. By identifying Australia’s legal obligations to such people under international refugee law, human rights law, and environmental law, the project will facilitate the creation of informed, responsible and lawful responses in dealing with this global problem.

The Project Director has published extensively on human-rights based approaches to international protection: Complementary Protection in International Refugee Law (OUP Oxford 2007), and on international refugee law generally: The Refugee in International Law (with GS Goodwin-Gill, 3rd edn OUP Oxford 2008).

Postgraduate students wishing to work in this area, or on forced displacement generally, are invited to contact the Project Director: j.mcadam@unsw.edu.au.

Talks, conference papers, media

	‘Securing the Environment: The Challenge of Protecting Human Rights in a Changing Climate’ (Australian Human Rights Centre symposium, UNSW, 2 May 2007)
	‘Climate-Induced Displacement and International Law’ (UNSW Faculty of Law Staff Seminar, 23 May 2007)
	‘Human Rights and Climate-Induced Displacement’ (HSC Legal Studies Student Conference, NSW Parliament House, 25 May 2007)
	‘Climate-Induced Displacement and International Law’, UNSW Law Society (29 May 2007)
	‘Climate Change “Refugees” and International Law: On or Off the World Map?’ (Scientia Scholars and Mentors, UNSW, 7 August 2007)
	‘Human Rights and Climate-Induced Displacement’ (NSW Teachers’ Legal Studies Student Conference, NSW Parliament House, 24 August 2007)
	‘Climate Change “Refugees” and International Law: On or Off the Map?’ (Jesuit Refugee Service, 19 September 2007)
	Climate Change Seminar (with the Hon Murray Wilcox QC),(NSW Bar Association, 24 October 2007
	‘Climate-induced displacement and the challenges for protection’, at ‘An Unsettled Future?  Forced Migration and Refugee Studies in the 21 st Century’ Conference, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, 7-8 December 2007

Media

	Interview on News Radio on climate change ‘refugees’ (2 May 2007)
	Interview on News Radio on climate change ‘refugees’ (22 May 2007)
	Interview on Triple J on climate change ‘refugees’ (with Kaitlyn Sawrey, Hack, 29 May 2007)
	Interview on Radio National on climate change ‘refugees’ (with Paul Barclay, Australia Talks, 7 June 2007)
	‘Climate Change Refugees and International Law’, ABC Radio National (Perspective, 17 October 2007)
	Interview on 3CR Community Radio on climate change 'refugees' (with Elizabeth Jakob, Tuesday Breakfast, 2 October 2007)
	Interview on 3CR Community Radio on climate-induced displacement (with Kevin Healey and Doug Jordan, City Limits, 14 November 2007)