CLIMATE CHANGE MIGRATIONS – SECURITY AND LEGAL ASPECTS

Abstract

Climate change has been undoubtedly profiled as a very significant factor in migratory movements in recent times. This is conditioned with the gradual but continuous aggravation of climatic circumstances, which has occurred especially since the 1950s, when significant changes in average weather conditions were observed, such as continuous growth in global temperature, more frequent and intense droughts, storms and warm periods, rise of the sea levels etc. In the early 1990s, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicated that the greatest particular impact of climate change could be human migration, with all subsequent consecutive reports from relevant international institutions insisting that environmental degradation, and especially climate change, have tendency to become the leading trigger for population displacement in the future. Given the all above mentioned, authors intend to examine the security aspects of migration caused by climate change, as well as the thesis that climate change is a ‘threat multiplier’, especially in the countries of the Global South. The authors also consider the need to review the international and national legal framework, which is necessary due to noticeably inadequate treatment and protection of people forced to leave their home due to hostile climate change.

Keywords

• climate change
• migration
• resource scarcity
• conflict
• internally displaced persons