Climate Displacement in a gender perspective

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PRESENTATION

We know that climate change is a driver for migration and that it is happening already. On average 26 million people are displaced due to climate related disasters such as floods and storms every year. The International Organisation for Migration notes in its assessment of evidence that by 2050 the number of climate-displaced people could vary between 25 million to 1 billion, with 200 million being the most widely cited estimate.

We also know that climate change exacerbates gender inequalities. Women and girls are acutely vulnerable in the face of climate related disasters. Women constitutes 70 % of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty worldwide who also often live in marginal areas vulnerable to floods, rising sea levels, droughts and storms. Not only are women likely to be living in the areas worst affected, women are also especially vulnerable once displaced to violence, exploitation and human trafficking.

How we respond to climate-induced displacement and migration will be a paramount challenge. The international community needs to develop a comprehensive global strategy for addressing climate displacement, which also is gender responsive, linking it to human rights and the development agenda.

The objective of the conference is to map and discuss the following questions:

1.       What are the current experiences and main difficulties of climate refugees in a gender perspective?

2.       How is the UN system currently addressing climate displacement, which instruments and bodies should be in the lead? What is the state of play regarding the Paris agreement’s task force on displacement (COP 24) and the Global Compact for migration (UN conference in Morocco, December 2018)?

3.       How can and what is the EU doing to contribute to and push the development of a global agenda on climate displacement, which also is gender responsive?

DRAFT PROGRAMME

15:00
Welcoming words - MEP Linnéa Engström

15:05
Keynote speech by Mary Robinson (via video conference)

15:30-16:30 

First Panel: Climate refugees on the move

Moderator MEP Florent Marcellesi

• 15 minutes documentary film "One Every Second" with Johannes Englich, Photographer at Thinkagency and Otto Simonsson, Doctoral Researcher at University of Oxford
  >> see the documentary
• Serigne Mbaye Diouf giving a personal testimony on the consequences of climate displacement
• Cristina Monge, Professor and Director of Conversaciones de ECODES

16:30-16:40
Questions & answers

16:40-17:00
Coffee Break

17:00-18:00

Second Panel: What can the EU do to push the global agenda on climate displacement from a gender perspective ?

Moderator MEP Jean Lambert

• Abdouraouf Gnon-Konde, Head of Global Issues in UNHCR’s office in Brussels
• Laureline Krichewsky, Associate Programme Officer Adaptation programme, UNFCCC
• Jorge Pinto-Antunes, International Negotiations Unit and Gender focal point, DG Climate
• Sven Harmeling, Global Policy Lead on Climate Change and Resilience, Care International
   

18:00-18:15
Questions & answers

18:15-18:30
Conclusions by Fiona Harvey, the Guardian