Switzerland - Six months after the historic adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement at COP21, which saw the inclusion of climate migration and displacement in the Agreement – the issue of climate migration and displacement is now being addressed in the Agreement’s implementation phase.

The Executive Committee (Excom) of the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts, a body linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is implementing an initial two-year work plan.

One Action Area under the plan relates to: “Enhancing the understanding of and expertise on how the impacts of climate change are affecting patterns of migration, displacement and human mobility; and the application of such understanding and expertise”.

IOM last week organized a three-day technical meeting in Casablanca, Morocco, to address the issue. On 27 July it brought together over 55 participants, including members of the Excom and experts in the fields of migration, displacement, human mobility and climate change. 

The objective was to provide a platform for diverse experts and Excom members to synthesize relevant information, good practices and lessons learned, to strengthen dialogue and coordination, and to disseminate the information as widely as possible.

“IOM has been at the forefront of operational, research, policy, capacity building and advocacy efforts on climate migration for the past 25 years and has striven to bring these matters to the heart of international, regional and national concerns, in collaboration with its member states, observers and partners.  Our goal now is to turn ink into action by helping governments to implement the relevant segments of the COP21 Paris Agreement on human mobility,” said Head of IOM’s Migration, Environment and Climate Change division Dina Ionesco.

During the meeting participants discussed the three pillars of the Excom WIM work and developed recommendations for ways forward.

In line with the Excom’s mandate under the Action Area on Migration, Displacement and Human Mobility, the meeting documented good practices, key challenges and lessons learned regarding migration and displacement in the context of climate change and developed a set of recommendations, including those that could be undertaken by the Excom in its future work.

The outputs of the meeting also aimed to support the future work of the Task Force on Displacement, whose creation was mandated by COP Decision 1/CP.21 at the conclusion of the Paris COP21, as well as the work of the Excom pertaining to discussions around the five-year work plan of the body.

The meeting was organized with the support of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development. For more information, please visit the relevant IOM and Excom WIM webpages.

For further information please contact Dina Ionesco at IOM Headquarters, Tel: +41 22 717 94 81, Email: dionesco@iom.int