Adapting to Climate-Related Human Mobility into Europe: Between the Protection Agenda and the Deterrence Paradigm, or Beyond?

Abstract

In 2015, following a series of sub-regional consultations, 109 states endorsed an Agenda for the Protection of Cross-Border Displaced Persons in the Context of Disasters and Climate Change. Although active in supporting the consultative process and notwithstanding their endorsement of this ‘Protection Agenda’, the European Union and its Member States promote ‘effective practices’ in the global South without committing to the same course of action at home. Recognizing that the Protection Agenda is difficult to reconcile with contemporary migration politics in the global North, this article argues that an approach that builds on the European Climate Law commitment to pursue climate change adaptation ‘guided by the best available and most recent scientific evidence’ provides a starting point for addressing some important aspects of human mobility in the context of disasters and climate change, and provides a context for discussing the kind of transformational adaptation called for by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.