Clare Francis (NYU GSAS) | Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law | Sydney, Australia
Developing states in the Asia-Pacific have historically contributed little to anthropogenic climate change. Nonetheless, today their populations face disproportionate risk of climate displacement. For some small island developing states (SIDS), including Kiribati, Tuvalu, and the Marshall Islands, increasingly severe coastal erosion and sea-level rise pose an existential threat. These states are on the frontlines of advocacy to reform international law to meet the climate crisis challenges.
Neither vulnerability to climate displacement nor states’ capacity to effectively respond are neutral phenomena. Concepts like ‘vulnerability’ and ‘capacity’ are themselves mediated by histories of colonialism and resource extraction. For example, these legacies have plagued efforts to address the question of historical responsibility for climate change, including through U.N. Loss and Damage financing. Responses to climate displacement must reckon with—not reinforce—these entanglements.
This summer, I will work with the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, a research centre based at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), in Sydney, Australia. The Kaldor Centre is dedicated to the study of the most critical displacement issues in Australia and across the Asia-Pacific region. It is comprised of a team of scholars who research and advocate for legal, sustainable, and humane solutions to forced migration.
Over the coming weeks, I’m looking forward to contributing to the Centre’s research project on ‘Climate change, disasters and displacement’. Led by Scientia Professor Jane McAdam, this research has supported the development of emerging legal frameworks on climate displacement, including the 2023 Pacific Regional Framework on Climate Mobility and the 2023 Kaldor Centre Principles on Climate Mobility.
Through my work at the Kaldor Centre, I’m hoping to explore responses to climate displacement in the Asia-Pacific which locate human rights within broader efforts towards climate and racial justice.