The plight of Pacific people affected by climate change will be one issue raised at the UN climate change conference known as COP23 in Germany.
Fiji will co-chair COP23 in November - and its Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama told a regional meeting that Pacific nations were fighting for their very survival, especially extremely low-lying nations such as Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands.
Maxine Burkett, University of Hawai'i law professor, has been researching climate-induced migration, displacement and relocation.
Professor Burkett told Philippa Tolley there's a need for proactive policies to protect small island states.
Hawaii is known for its beautiful beaches
Photo: RNZ / Philippa Tolley
Transcript
MAXINE BURKETT: There is, I think on a country-by-country level a need to have a conversation about how we are going to deal with the migration of people and it’s going to be, either more co-ordinated or more chaotic. More humanitarian and human rights-based or more security and exclusion, or that national security language that is not always for the best for the individual or community but looking more at national security concerns that sometimes don't take human rights or humanitarian concerns as seriously as it might. I think a proactive and rights-based approach will be optimal and i think it's only possible for thinking ahead in respects to immigration policy.
PHILIPPA TOLLEY: Is there much buy-in for that perspective at the moment, internationally?
MB: Well, as an American I wouldn’t say that describes the position of the current administration and unfortunately I think that position is arrived at in isolation of some of the major contributing factors. So we talk about immigration about thinking about the environmental stresses on the communities and individuals and are moving out of these more marginal spaces. And where they're moving to are places with that have more opportunity, at this point with respect to what we have here in the United States. I don't think the conversation is getting better, but I do think we are having the conversation in relatively stark terms and with what's happen in Europe and conversations in US we can perhaps find a better way to discuss how immigration can work for all involved.
PT: How urgently do these conversations need to be had?
MB: I think we're a couple of years late...maybe a generation or so too late. I mean, in some ways, again, if you're thinking proactively how much we can tolerate and I don’t think climate change and heading off some of the greatest risks is about what we're willing to put on the table and take off the table and so in that regard it's about what's probable from that outcome. And the longer we wait to make sound policies with respect to how people move under stress the longer we have to be leaving open the likelihood of conflict, the individually, household and national level. So in my mind we can't settle on a strict number - like in 2-5 years must have 'X' decided. I do think we need to continually have conversations about what we want and to alleviate risk which is the possibility of safety and security and general peace-building in some of the more stressed parts of the world, and frankly, within our country too. The US is not immune from these concerns.
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