World Environment Day: Facts about Migration, the Environment and Climate Change

Every year on June 5th, World Environment Day is celebrated by people across the globe. This year, the celebration falls in the midst of the research endeavour on ‘migration, the environment and climate change in Ireland’. In recognition of the connections between the environment and migration, the IOM released social media statements on the collaboration between the MsCCAFS programme of the Ryan Institute at NUIG and IOM Ireland. The following posts were some of the highlights during the social media campaign, which highlighted World Environment Day through educating viewers on facts about the nexus.

To learn more about environmental migration, explore the IOM’s Knowledge Platform on People on the Move in a Changing Climate, the Environmental Migration Portal.

It is crucial to understand that climate change and the subsequent migration in response to it, affects populations in a disproportionate manner. Those most vulnerable will come from regions that have contributed least to anthropogenic climate change and are affected most intensely. Even further, different levels of vulnerability exist within these regions, corresponding to people’s socioeconomic status, gender, age, ability, livelihood type and other factors that determine one’s capacity to cope.
This tweet entails a video with speakers Lalini Veerassamy, Chief of Mission of IOM Ireland and Professor Charles Spillane, Director of the Ryan Institute at NUI Galway, discussing the partnership between the institutions and the background context for the report.
Facts such as these are alerting and they remind us that ‘climate migration’ is not a distant future, but a current phenomenon that must be addressed in order to support those most vulnerable.
While it is difficult to project the future of climate migration, modelling results have a relative idea of the proportion of people who may be displaced in the future due to degrading environments and the breakdown of the climate system.