On the Verge – Climate Migration with Amali Tower and Kayly Ober (012)

By: Evan Barnard In this episode, Evan Barnard, a research fellow
at the Center for Climate and Security, discusses human migration
and climate security with Amali Tower and Kayly Ober. Ms. Tower is
the Executive Director at Climate Refugees as well as a member of
the World Economic Forum and its Expert Network in Migration, Human
Rights and Humanitarian Response. Ms. Tower has experience in
promoting the rights and protection of refugees and forcibly
displaced persons with UNHCR, various NGOs and the US Refugee
Admissions Program throughout Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and
the US. Ms. Ober is the Senior Advocate and Program Manager of the
Climate Displacement Program at Refugees International. Prior to
Refugees International, she worked as a Policy Specialist for the
Asian Development Bank and as a Consultant at the World Bank, where
she authored the flagship report Groundswell: Preparing for
Internal Climate Migration. The podcast features a discussion of
three recent migration reports. The Biden Administration’s U.S.
Strategy for Addressing the Root Causes of Migration in Central
America lays out its proposed course of action to address and
mitigate Central American migration and its “root causes.” The
Climate Refugees, Climate Change, Forced Displacement, and Peace
& Security report investigates the international security
perspective on climate change as a driver of human migration
through a human rights lens. The report by the blue ribbon panel of
Refugees International Task Force Report to the President on the
Climate Crisis and Global Migration provides a human rights-centric
discourse of the relationship between climate change and human
migration. In the conversation, Ms. Ober suggests reevaluating
refugee status qualifications to include climate-related crises.
She reasons that the Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status
of Refugees should, by definition, cover persons fleeing from
climate-related crises. The Biden Administration’s executive order
Rebuilding and Enhancing Programs To Resettle Refugees and Planning
for the Impact of Climate Change on Migration acknowledges climate
change affects migration and calls for a forthcoming report on the
relationship between climate and migration. Ms. Tower recommends
greater prioritization of climate change in international
multilateral institutions like the United Nations Security Council
(UNSC). Climate change affects all people, but it does not affect
all people equally. According to Ms. Tower and Ms. Ober, a change
in political will is needed to make substantial progress towards
comprehensive human rights-based migration governance and creating
more inclusive migration policies that incorporate climate change
considerations.  For further reading, please check out Ms.
Tower’s blog post, Central American Climate Migration is a Human
Security Crisis.