THEMES

Intersectionality

Scoping paper on climate change, migration and religion

PROCESS

Scoping Paper

Research

Thought Leadership

Context

Climate migration is a major global issue that is expected to affect over 216 million people by 2050. People who are forced to leave their home due to climate change are known as climate migrants and typically fall into two categories: "sudden onset" and "slow onset." The former involves temporary and local relocation, whereas the latter describes long-term and "voluntary" migration. Both types of climate migration can be incredibly challenging for those affected with little action taken in addressing this issue due to a lack of international cooperation.This negative trend provides ample urge to explore alternative ways of mitigating climate migration. One emerging solution that is yet to be fully explored on a population level, is religion. However the relationship between climate change, migration and religion has not been widely studied. This may be due to the limited occurrence of climate-driven cross-border migration which, on-paper, is believed to produce situations where different religions come into contact. However, based on current trends this may be a prominent issue in the years to come. Therefore, it is highly important to address the religious dimension of climate migration. 

This scoping paper looks at existing literature that explores the intersection between climate change, migration and religion: implications, limitations and areas for further investigation.

A key barrier to addressing climate migration is the lack of recognition for environmental refugees. What constitutes a refugee is still based on the 1951 Geneva Convention, which is a person seeking protection outside their country of origin due to a well-founded fear of persecution based on factors like race, religion, nationality, social group, or political opinion. This does not extend to individuals fleeing their country of origin due to the effects of climate change. Additionally, a disputed link between migration and climate change means international frameworks to manage this have failed to materialise substantively. A factor contributing to the international community’s unwillingness to extend refugee protection to climate migrants is perhaps underpinned by the difficulty in establishing a causal link between climate change and migration because migration is always a multi-causal process. Equally, there is no evidence that climate migration will occur cross-border at scale, since the vast majority of those displaced by climate are done so internally.

How does religion intersect with climate migration?

There has been interest in the potential of faith-based actors and communities playing a role in the response to climate-driven migration among policymakers and academics. 

The Centre for Latin American and Latino Studies (CLALS) at the American University, Washington DC investigated how religious responses can mitigate environmental displacement in Latin America. It was concluded that are several dimensions of religious engagement with environmental displacement: 

  • The potential contributions of faith-based actors and religious concepts to national and international deliberations and to emerging normative frameworks addressing new governance and security challenges posed by environmental migration;

  • The participation of transnational faith-based NGOs in humanitarian intervention on behalf of migrants;

  • The role in receiving communities of religion for addressing the needs of migrants, especially in contexts of resettlement and social integration;

  • The ways religious engagement is well-positioned to ameliorate intangible and collective dimensions of environmental dislocations beyond just  the material needs of migrants

This paper also explores the role of indigenous beliefs in the fight against extractivism and the large-scale displacement of indigenous communities.

Impact

Overall, religion and belief is predominantly left out of mainstream debate about climate change and migration – arguably down to prevailing secularism within Western European governing institutions. However, it is important in future policy development around climate and migration because religion is entangled with the human experience.

We invite you to read the report where we explore these ideas in greater detail.