COP30: UN urges protection for climate migrants

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is calling on global leaders to protect the rights and dignity of those living on the frontlines of the climate crisis, including migrants and displaced persons, Indigenous Peoples, and traditional and local communities.

Floods, heatwaves, droughts and storms are forcing millions from their homes every year. Most never cross a border; they remain internally displaced yet uprooted all the same.

But experts warn that in the not-so-distant future, entire nations could disappear beneath rising seas or become uninhabitable through drought.

At COP30 in Belém, Brazil, IOM is pressing negotiators to make climate mobility a core part of adaptation plans.

Ugochi Daniels, IOM’s Deputy Director General today (14 Nov) said, “early warning systems, resilience services and livelihoods in the high-risk areas are vital to support the right to stay.”

Daniels said many of those who have been displaced, “when you ask them what they want and what solutions mean for them, it's about being able to go home. But the homes that they know, the livelihoods that they had. Have been impacted by climate. So, it's about building their resilience.”

Daniels expressed hope that COP30 will be a turning point especially in national adaptation plans and financing for loss and damage.

She said, “there's a lot that has been said about climate finance and this finance getting to local communities, Indigenous people, and migrants. But we want to go beyond saying it. We want to go beyond recognizing it has to be implementing.”

Climate policies, the IOM official said, “need to have human mobility front and centre,” adding that COP30 could be a “great opportunity” to bring these issues into negotiations and outcomes.