While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau maintains relatively high popularity numbers here in Canada, they pale in comparison to the borderline rock star status the Canadian Prime Minister currently has on the international stage. Most recently, he was in New York to address the United Nations’ General Assembly and attend the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants.

It’s the first-ever summit of its kind because there hasn't been a refugee crisis like this in our lifetimes — or in the UN’s lifetime. You’ve heard the facts by now. Right now, more than 65 million people have been forced from their homes. That’s more than at any other time since the end of the Second World War. And there’s no end in sight.

In his speech at the summit on Monday, Trudeau took a bow for Canada’s efforts to take in refugees. Yet when the applause died down, he emphasized how that isn’t enough.

“I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that Canada’s engagement must not stop at resettlement,” the Prime Minister said. “Now is the time for each of us to consider what more we can contribute. So, in Canada, we’re looking at our options.”

So what are those options? How can we address the forces that are driving people from their homes in the first place?

Researchers have linked the current conflict in Syria to droughts that have been exacerbated by  climate change. And it’s not just Syria. Our changing climate is fuelling and amplifying the current humanitarian/security crises that prompted this UN summit. Many other regions are vulnerable to the same dynamics, which is why people are talking about “The Ominous Story of Syria's Climate Refugees.”

But here’s the thing: there’s no such thing as a climate refugee. Officially speaking, that is.

The official definition of refugees includes people who are displaced by persecution, war or violence. Someone who has to flee their home because of climate change impacts falls through the cracks.

The declaration from Monday’s refugee summit specifically mentions people who flee “in response to the adverse effects of climate change, natural disasters (some of which may be linked to climate change) or other environmental factors.” Yet they’re still not technically refugees.

That’s a sign of just how ill-prepared we are to deal with what’s coming. As our climate becomes increasingly unstable, the sad truth is there will be climate refugees. Lots of them. Our legal and political system doesn’t have an official grasp of that concept yet, much less an actual response to it.

I’m not the only person who thinks this way. Last week, a bipartisan group of ex-military leaders held the Climate and National Security Forum in Washington, D.C. These are soldiers who see a changing climate as “an important, fundamental national security matter.” They know that governments aren’t adequately prepared for that, and are still largely operating within a 20th-century framework of what causes (and resolves) global crises and conflicts.

So Prime Minister Trudeau is right to say that resettling refugees isn’t enough. More needs to be done. Canada should “look at our options,” as he puts it.

We may not be a major military power, but Canada does have other kinds of clout. If we want to help deal with the root causes of the current refugee crisis, and future ones, climate change is a wise area to focus.

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In a sign of things to come, a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says Ottawa should create a new “climate migrants” immigration class to prepare for the inflow of people fleeing extreme climate change.

“Estimates of the number of climate-influenced migrants range widely, but most projections agree that in the coming years climate change will compel hundreds of millions of people to relocate,” the report says. “Climate change is one factor that interacts with many others to drive population movements."

Many countries are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change than Canada, said the 26-page report — Preparing BC for Climate Migration — published last week. 

“Industrialized countries like Canada have disproportionately benefitted from the combustion of fossil fuels, whereas others who have contributed least to climate change will disproportionately feel its impacts,” the report states.

Canada is the fourth highest per-capita greenhouse gas emitter in the world according to 2008 World Resources Institute climate data (this estimate does not take into account emissions resulting from the burning of exported coal, oil and gas).

Report co-author Tim Takaro, a health sciences professor at Simon Fraser University, said Canada has a moral responsibility to people who migrate due to climate change — not just as a matter of charity or generosity, but of justice and reparation as well.

“The federal and provincial governments, rather than ignoring the issue, should develop a comprehensive policy framework to manage climate migration,” Takaro said.

The world is already witnessing the impacts of climate change on lives and livelihoods, the report says.

Global damage from climate change itself and fossil fuel development is estimated at $1.2 trillion per year, or 1.6 per cent of world GDP in 2010, and is projected to rise to 3.2 per cent in 2030.

Canada has acted to thwart international negotiations on climate change, and has not supported UN-sponsored measures that would provide financial assistance to countries affected by global warming.

Canada admits about 250,000 immigrants of all classes per year, the report said, a number that has changed little since the early 1990s. New permanent residents span three major categories: family class (spouses and other family of Canadian citizens and permanent residents), economic immigrants (workers and business immigrants) and refugees.

The number of refugees has dropped from more than 50,000 in each of 1991 and 1992 to fewer than 25,000 per year since 2008, the report says. Refugees constituted 23 per cent of new immigrants to Canada in 1991, but that number had fallen to nine per cent by 2012. In contrast, about two-thirds of immigrants are now from the economic immigrant category. Most of these are skilled workers and their families, while another group includes “investor” immigrants and their families.

“While there is scope for climate migrants to be accepted under this existing framework of law, greater clarity and certainty could be provided by creating a new immigration class of ‘climate migrant’ along with targets and programs to ensure Canada lives up to its moral responsibilities,” said the report.

Key settlement services should be made accessible to climate migrants, the report recommended, adding more funding should also be allocated to reduce strain on these already-overloaded systems and to allow increased migration.

“Given that most climate migrants will remain in the Global South, Canada should substantially increase its support to developing countries shouldering the burden of climate displacement,” the report added.

“Canada owes a ‘climate debt’ to the nations bearing the greatest impacts, including countries that will assist and settle climate migrants.”

Image Credit: Villagers wade through floodwater in Bihar, India in 2008. Photo by Balazs Gardi via Flickr.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

The Guardian news outlet is running a series this week on the small Alaskan town of Newtok that is slowly being wiped off the map as the waters rise around it.

The Army Corp of Engineers predicts that the highest point in Newtok could be under water by as early as 2017. This is irrefutable evidence that climate change is here now, and the sea level rises are no longer a prediction by scientists, but happening as we speak.

Guardian journalist Suzanne Goldenberg writes,

These villages, whose residents are nearly all native Alaskans, are already experiencing the flooding and erosion that are the signature effects of climate change in Alaska. The residents of a number of villages – including Newtok – are now actively working to leave their homes and the lands they have occupied for centuries and move to safer locations.

Once upon a time, it was considered politically savvy in some quarters to downplay or outright deny the realities of climate change. But now, with communities in exile from the impacts, denying climate change seems to me to be borderline negligent.

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