As the climate crisis deepens, low-lying countries are witnessing significant amounts of their territory being rendered uninhabitable, with some facing the prospect of complete inundation from rising sea level. For many Small Island Developing States, this represents a catastrophic threat to their political, social, economic and cultural fabric and the Pacific Atoll countries are at the frontline of this global climate emergency.
The Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, also known as Escazú Agreement, was adopted on March 4, 2018 in Escazú, Costa Rica. This treaty strengthens the link between human rights and environmental defense by posing obligations on the States parties, regarding the protection of environmental human rights defenders. Thus, the Escazú Agreement promotes a four-pillar model of environmental democracy.
On January 9, 2023, Chile and Colombia signed a joint advisory opinion request to be presented before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), aiming to clarify the scope of the state obligations for responding to the climate emergency under the frame of international human rights law. The request acknowledged the human rights effects of the climate emergency, especially highlighting the vulnerability of communities and ecosystems in Latin America. In this line, Colombia and Chile emphasized the need for regional standards to accelerate action to confront climate change.
The Groundswell Report is a comprehensive study conducted by the Climate Change Group of the World Bank. The first part of this report was published in 2018, and the second part, titled 'Groundswell: Acting on Internal Climate Migration', was unveiled in September 2021. The report's findings indicate that if immediate and effective climate and development action plans aren't put into place, it's estimated that over 216 million individuals across six global regions may have to migrate within their own countries by the year 2050.
The pilot phase of MSDG was implemented from August 2017 to December 2018, during which a Gambian Diaspora Strategy (GDS) was developed and incorporated in the Gambia National Development Plan (NDP 2018-21).
The Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees (GCF) responds to the unmet needs of cities as they support migrants, refugees, and internally displaced people in the face of pressing challenges, from global pandemics to the climate crisis. By directly funding cities to implement inclusive programs of their own design, the GCF:
The Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund (ARTF) is a multi-donor trust fund that coordinates international aid to improve the lives of Afghans. It’s administered by the World Bank and currently supported by 32 donor partners.
Established in 2002, the ARTF was the largest source of on-budget financing for Afghanistan's development until the political event in Afghanistan in August 2021. Until then, it funded Afghanistan’s national priority projects, including in health, education, agriculture, rural development, infrastructure, and public financial management.
The Development Response to Displacement Impact Project (DRDIP) is a World Bank funded project through Investment Project Financing-IDA Loan to the Government of Uganda of about 50 Million dollars and is implemented by the office of the Prime Minister.
The Project provides development and direct income support to vulnerable nationals and refugees within refugee hosting districts in Uganda and aims to improve access to basic social services, expand economic opportunities and enhance environmental management in refugee hosting districts.
In February 2021, the Colombian government launched the Temporary Protection Status (Estatuto Temporal de Protección para Migrantes Venezolanos, or ETPV), a legal mechanism which facilitates the transition of migrants from an emergency migratory regime to a regularization status, granting access to formal employment, education, healthcare, and financial services for almost two million Venezuelan migrants and refugees.
The Climate Parliament is an international multi-partisan network of legislators working to combat climate change and protect the living planet
The Climate Parliament is a global multi-partisan network of legislators working to inform and mobilise Members of Parliament and Congress to take action on the climate emergency and protect the living planet. It focuses particularly on the small number of MPs who are ready to exercise leadership in their parliaments on this issue.