Argentina - The IOM Regional Office for South America and Brazil’s Ministry of Environment are today (5/12) holding a roundtable in Brasilia to discuss migration and climate change.

With support from the International Migration Observatory, participants will discuss issues related to human mobility caused by climate change, and exchange knowledge and ideas. These will be considered by policy makers developing initiatives and regulations in countries in the region.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), all of Central and South America is likely to warm during this century.

In the Amazon region, IPCC forecasts an increase of 6 degrees Celsius by the year 2100, as well increased incidences of drought and extreme rainfall.  Precipitation is likely to increase in Tierra del Fuego during winter, and in south-eastern South America during summer. 

Large numbers of residents are already feeling the impact of extreme weather.  Some examples include: massive flooding in Colombia in 2010; a destructive earthquake in Chile the same year; flooding in Peru in 2012, and mudslides and floods in Brazil at the end of 2013, and in the Sao Paolo region in early 2014.

Although the continent has not experienced significant and permanent displacement due to climate change, experts warn of the need to consider these natural disasters as signs of future deadlier disasters.

In October, the IOM Regional Office for South America, with support from the Ministries of the Environment and Foreign Relations of Chile, organized a regional workshop on climate change and migration.

IOM is also attending the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) and the 10th Session of the COP serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, taking place from 1 to 12 December in Lima, Peru.

For more information please contact IOM’s Regional Office for South America in Buenos Aires

Elizabeth Warn

Tel: +54 11 5219 2033/34/35

Email: ewarn@iom.int

or

Magdalena Mactas

Tel: +54 11 5219 2033/34/35

Email: mmactas@iom.int