UN 'can and should' recognize climate migrants … As temperatures rise, living conditions for many people around the world are likely to deteriorate, in some cases leading them to migrate. A team from Canada wants this issue brought under the spotlight. "We argue that the UNFCCC can and should recognize climate migrants," Chris Gibb of the University of Montreal told environmentalresearchweb. "Pursuing this policy option does not preclude taking action in other institutions or international frameworks at other scales, e.g. bilateral agreements between countries or regions. While imperfect, UNFCCC recognition is the best current option." The Cancun Adaptation Framework agreed at the UNFCCC COP16 meeting in 2010 invites parties to undertake "measures to enhance understanding, co-ordination and co-operation with regard to climate-change induced displacement, migration and planned relocation, where appropriate". – Environmental Resource Web

Dominant Social Theme: A new kind of migration is taking hold that must be dealt with.

Free-Market Analysis: Here comes the United Nations with a new way of trolling for dollars. This article reports on a climate migrant paper "designed to provoke debate and to move the climate-migration issue forward in academic and policy circles, and in particular, examine what the recognition of climate migrants under the auspices of the UNFCCC can and cannot achieve."

Didn't know that climate migration was an issue? We were not aware of it until recently but it seems to be growing in importance in environmental circles – and among university types, as well. Of course, count us among skeptics when it comes to the whole climate change/global warming paradigm. We see it as just another elitist promotion aimed at control – not at alleviating real difficulties.

It is also a monetary issue, no doubt. This area is ripe for "grant harvesting," etc. – as a whole new form of social disconnection is being discovered. The United Nations itself can no doubt discover a new corporate mission. That seems to be the plan, anyway.

Together with James Ford of McGill University, Gibb examined the complexity of defining climate migrants, assessed the potential for the UNFCCC to officially recognize such migrants and proposed a guiding framework showing how the UNFCCC could achieve recognition.

No single factor, event or process inevitably produces migration, Gibb and Ford argued, making it hard to differentiate between types of migrant. They said that the UN is the only truly global institution, migration is widely regarded as an adaptation to climate change and the UNFCCC has a mandate to address adaptation issues. What is more, ignoring climate migration could undermine other adaptation efforts while recognizing migration could prevent the most vulnerable countries from bearing the costs.

On the other hand, the effectiveness of the UNFCCC in enabling newer adaptation initiatives is largely untested, and its decision making is slow and tends to lead to political rather than legal commitments. If done incorrectly, UNFCCC recognition could result in further marginalization of climate migration, and increased attention to climate migrants could come at the expense of other displaced people.

We can see the groundwork being laid not only for additional fundraising but maybe also for a whole new United Nations office devoted to climate migration.

Already in other articles we read of "climate remittances" that could be made to various governments based on migration patterns. And the whole issue of who a climate migrant is seems hazy.

Climate migration is said to be driven by climate-related issues such as drought and famine. But drought and famine have been around as long the human race. What's being set up here, it would seem, is yet another supporting promotion that the powers-that-be hope will add credibility to the flagging global warming scenario.

Global warming itself is a much-debated issue. But now it seems that the UN and its enablers and associates intend to conflate migratory patterns with "climate change" – providing yet a new layer of confusion, and no doubt fundraising potential, as well.

We expect to hear more about climate migration in the future. Most of it will be speculative – or based on data that can be interpreted in numerous ways. And certainly, it will demand more funding from UN member states.