India faces a myriad of problems due to extreme weather events such as sweltering heat, droughts and disasters. massive flooding.

Among them, climate-induced migration is of particular importance for the South Asian country, where a surprising number of people already face the threat of displacement and these numbers are expected to increase exponentially.

In 2020, around 14 million people in India were forced to migrate due to extreme weather events, according to figures from the country’s Internal Displacement Observatory (IDMC).

The 2022 IDMC report indicates that India experiences the third highest number of internal displacement due to disasters, after China and the Philippines.

The number of climate-related migrants in India is expected to reach 45 million by 2050, according to the Climate Action Network South Asia.

Despite the serious risks associated with climate migration, India still lacks a policy framework.

“A lot of human mobilities are taking place, which are partly due to climate change but are not identified as climate-related,” said Mathew A Varghese, professor at the Center for Urban Studies at Mahatma Gandhi University.

Climate Migration Policy in India

Despite being the seventh most vulnerable country in the world to climate change and facing the colossal challenge of climate migration, India does not have concrete policies in place to address this problem.

In 2008, India launched the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), which sets out a broad framework for what India could do to combat climate change across different sectors.

However, “there is a significant policy void in terms of how the framework aims to manage displacement,” Saransh Bajpai, associate director of the climate economics and finance program at the World Resources Institute, told DW.

“The National Disaster Management Authority, although recognizing displacement and mobility, fails to establish concrete financial mechanisms to address this challenge (of climate migration). So there is definitely a policy vacuum. “

In 2022, for the first time, Pradyut Bordoloi, a Congressman from the climate-vulnerable eastern state of Assam, introduced the Climate Migrants (Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill as as a private member’s bill in Parliament.

Bordoloi told DW that the bill was motivated by the suffering of people on the Brahmaputra islands who, after losing their homes and livelihoods every rainy season, are forced to relocate. He said they become vulnerable to discrimination and persecution.

While introducing the bill, Bordoloi had said the proposed legislation sought to “establish an appropriate policy framework for the protection and rehabilitation of internally displaced climate migrants and all matters related thereto” .

The bill also aimed to create a climate migration fund. However, it was not adopted.

“Local governments or state governments could play a partisan role, that’s why there should be a federal authority that would take care of the needs of climate migrants,” Bordoloi told DW, adding that “this authority should receive a budgetary allocation from the Government of India”.

COP29: an opportunity for India?

India does not have a climate migration policy, despite being a signatory to the UN Sendai Framework, which recognizes disaster-related displacement as a significant problem and a major driver of disaster risk .

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) also recognizes the subject of migration, displacement and planned resettlement as a critical issue in climate risk management.

COP28, the United Nations climate conference held last year in Dubai, saw the first ever global stocktaking in which human mobility was recognized as a major impact of climate change affecting people and communities. communities. The Loss and Damage Fund, first operationalized during the talks, also included displacement and internally displaced persons within its scope.

India plans to take the lead in advocating for better climate finance opportunities for developing countries at the UN climate summit, COP29, next week, which will take place in Baku, the capital of the ‘Azerbaijan.

Despite its participation and active role in global forums discussing climate change, India ignores internal climate migration which has a huge economic impact.

“India is very strongly engaged in global negotiating processes and has been very vocal on adaptation and loss and damage,” said Bajpa, who noted that India could benefit philanthropic funding for climate change.

“India should come up with something innovative to… engage with these philanthropies and make a contribution in the form of an unconditional grant,” he said, adding that “the migration policy should then allow create a reliable financial mechanism in India.”

Edited by: Keith Walker