The Norwegian Refugee Council hosted a side event Tuesday at the United Nations climate summit in Paris to bring forward voices from the frontline, where climate displacement is already a day-to-day reality.
The event was set up to “highlight the importance of including human mobility aspects in the Paris agreement and decisions,” states an event flyer circulated onsite. Nina M. Birkeland, NRC’s Senior Adviser on Disasters and Climate Change, said the Council is looking for a “strong, legally binding agreement on climate change that also includes displacement and human mobility.”
While “displacement as an effect of climate change is on the rise, and will become unmanageable unless we can reduce climate change,” Birkeland acknowledged that no one knows how many will be affected.
“The correct answer is that nobody knows, but we know the numbers will be high,” she said. “Some project that as many as one billion people will be displaced, with 200 million being the most widely cited figure.” Whatever the right number turns out to be, “it is far too many, and action is needed while we get more accurate figures.”
