Migration in the UNFCCC Workstream on ‘Loss and Damage’: An Assessment of Alternative Framings and Conceivable Responses

Abstract

Discourses on ‘climate migration’ have played an instrumental role in initiating negotiations on ‘loss and damage’ under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Yet, ‘climate migration’ has rather confusedly been framed, alternatively, as a tool for reducing loss and damage (hence essentially a form of adaptation) or as a source of loss and damage, either for the migrants or for other concerned communities. Meanwhile, proposed approaches to address migration as a form of loss and damage have extended beyond compensation, which remain controversial among industrial nations. In the highly politicized field of migration governance, however, this article submits that policy support and guidance in addressing loss and damage could prompt dangerous forms of political interference, such as the imposition of Western states’ objective of containing migrants in the Global South. It is thus suggested that top-down migration policies may not genuinely help vulnerable nations face loss and damage.

Keywords: Climate change; migration; loss and damage; Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage; UNFCCC workstream on loss and damage; Paris Agreement.