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Climate change and migration are two structural and urgent phenomena. Climate change is an irreversible and therefore structural process. Urgent measures need to be taken to foster the climate transition actions and sustainable development.

Migration is also a process that continues over time, due to the inequalities amongst countries, amplified by the impacts of climate change. Given the interlinkages, policies regardign migration and cliamte change need to be coherent and holistic.

The policy paper drafted by FOCSIV, within the framework of the project Faces of Migration project, addresses these issues by analysing the impact of climate change on migration in its different effects, relating the research to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report highlights and investigates connections between: climate change, poverty, inequalities and migration; food security and migration; climate change, production and consumption patterns and migration; climate change, conflicts and migration.

The analysis of these interconnections leads us to propose a series of political recommendations, among them, we highlight the importance of applying SDG target 10.7. We recommend to sign and apply the Global Compact on Migration and then participate in cooperation platforms to govern flows within a framework of sustainable development. Durable solutions for refugees should be supported, both with local integration and with resettlement and humanitarian channels, while shared pathwais should be sought at multilateral and regional levels for so-called environmental migrants.

At the same time, progress should be made in implementing the Paris Agenda with more ambitious commitments to greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation, recognising migration as one of its modalities, at national and cross-border levels. Therefore, together with just transition plans, relocation plans with informed consent and access to adequate resources and capacities should be outlined, to be supported by development cooperation.

Resilience and social security with social equity strategies for migrants and host communities, housing, work and land should be more strongly supported in transition plans. This is in contrast to the extractive model of production and consumption that expels communities and generates dead land and water. It is necessary to move forward in regulating the behaviour of businesses, with standards of due diligence along the value chains.

The transformation of economic models for a better management of migration should also be supported with reference to the promotion of peace, dialogue and conflict prevention: transforming the economy of war into an economy of peace means drastically reducing forced migration.

Finally, development cooperation has an important role to play in supporting local communities in the South and indigenous peoples in protecting the environment and social relations, and in supporting resilient models that are alternatives to extractivism. Diasporas can also contribute in this direction, both for the implementation of innovative projects and for awareness-raising and advocacy campaigns in support of regular and safe migration.

Download the policy paper here