Raising the Profile of Climate-Induced Displaced People in Cities
By Dr. Evan Easton-Calabria
Accompanying rising levels of global displacement, more and more people displaced by climate and weather extremes (termed here climate-induced displaced people) are entering cities. It is estimated, for example, that 59.1 million people were internally displaced in 2021, most by climate-induced events or conditions and many moving to urban areas. These intersecting trends of climate-induced displacement and cities and towns as key destinations are set to continue.
Once climate-induced displaced people enter urban areas, what do they need and how are they helped? The fact that this question is so hard to answer illustrates the need to involve climate-induced displaced people and the municipalities that often host them in discussions, decision-making, and action on climate-induced urban forced migration. Although data on climate-induced migration and displacement have increased in recent years, specific information on climate-induced displaced people in cities remains limited to small-scale qualitative case studies. Urban forcibly displaced people displaced by climate change are often consolidated into larger migration figures for a particular country or region, and thus stay essentially unrecognized. Additionally, municipalities have rarely been directly approached by international actors or national governments to address the challenges of climate-induced displaced people arriving in their cities. Municipalities often also lack the research and monitoring capacities to document the numbers and needs of incoming displaced people, which in turn can make it difficult to raise attention or funding to address displacement.
Increasing recognition of the scale of climate migration has prompted mayors and other city leaders around the world to increase climate action and preparations for climate-induced urban displacement. Important locally-led initiatives such as the C40 Cities and Mayors Migration Council (MMC) are two examples of how local leaders are convening to address the climate crisis and the needs of refugees and forced migrants. As MMC states, “From developing inclusive climate action policies that put people at the center, to planning for people who are leaving their homes as a result of climate push factors, cities have demonstrated capacity to drive solutions locally while influencing policy-making at higher levels of governance through joint advocacy.”
Yet without more research and attention, both general and specific needs of climate-induced displaced people and the cities that host them may go unmet. One of many unanswered research questions, for example, is whether people displaced by climate and weather extremes have needs that differ from those of other displaced people entering cities.
DISPLACED AND AT RISK AGAIN
An important consideration related to urban climate-induced displacement is that cities themselves are hardly immune to the impacts of climate change. Yet climate resilience and adaptation is a new mandate for cities and one for which cities globally are woefully underprepared. Worldwide, only 18% of cities with a population of more than 1 million have climate adaptation plans. The number of plans that explicitly discuss displaced people is likely much smaller. This tension must be more prominently addressed given the likelihood of increased numbers of climate-induced displaced people seeking refuge in cities around the world.
This is particularly important because, although much climate-induced displacement occurs from rural to urban areas, cities and towns will also experience increasing numbers and increased severity of climate hazards. Indeed, some research estimates that people may be just as likely to migrate to environmentally vulnerable areas as they are to move away from them. Dhaka, Bangladesh, is just one example of a city facing significant rural-urban migration – with approximately 300,000-400,000 migrants arriving each year – yet also experiencing severe climate hazards such as flooding and landslides. In other cities with significant numbers of displaced people, such as Amman, Jordan, hazards include heat waves and droughts that strain existing electricity grids and lead to urban water shortages, while in agricultural areas of the country low crop productivity risks urban food insecurity. Climate risks and challenges will be especially pronounced in densely populated areas, such as informal settlements, where many forcibly displaced people end up. Many poorly constructed urban camps and informal settlements are in hazard-prone areas, thereby increasing the risk of people being displaced again.
NEXT STEPS FOR SUPPORTING MUNICIPALITIES
Municipal authorities need more decision-making power and support from both central governments and international actors to address increased influxes of climate-induced displaced people and tackle climate-induced changes occurring in their cities. The limited legal recognition of climate-induced displaced people (who are not legally recognized as refugees) is a challenge both to themselves and to the cities in which they arrive, which currently have limited resources to support these new populations. International humanitarian assistance for urban displaced people is severely lacking on all fronts, despite over 60 percent of the world’s refugees living in urban areas, and all the more imperative given high urban poverty rates for refugees and the fact that unregistered arrivals to cities may not be recognized by central governments as legal residents. This needs to change.
Cities themselves also need to increase partnerships with experts, agencies, and donors in areas such as disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, urban planning, and development. As a recent report by the Mayors Migration Council proclaims, there is “clear and immediate urgency for driving national and international investments to city governments and local communities as first responders to climate migration.” Currently, while forced migration is a topic on the international agenda, municipal responses to climate change are often discussed as national or even just “local” issues (when broached at all). Finance mechanisms addressing cities and climate change are limited, but as they progress in size and reach, it is imperative that the impacts of displacement and the needs of the urban displaced themselves are directly addressed in climate change adaptation and mitigation plans and projects.
Alongside this, there is an urgent need to increase research and strengthen the evidence base on climate-induced displaced people in cities and increase their engagement in high-level decision-making platforms. Doing so has many benefits, including strengthening municipalities’ capacities to advocate for and with the urban displaced, to respond to their immediate needs, and to include them in both emergency and adaptation plans in anticipation of the disasters yet to come.
This research was made possible through support provided by the Office of Acquisition and Assistance, Bureau for Management, U.S. Agency for International Development, under the terms of Cooperative Agreement No. 720BHA21CA00044. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Evan Easton-Calabria is Senior Researcher at the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University, working at the Academic Alliance on Anticipatory Action, and Research Associate at the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. She is currently FFVT Fellow at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) in Bonn, Germany. She can be reached at: evan.easton_calabria@tufts.edu.
Pakistan floods is by IRIN Photos and is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
