Abstract

This chapter retraces the emergence of climate migration as a global issue. It examines the role played by different actors, ranging from scholars from environmental and migration studies, to operational institutions such as the International Organisation for Migration and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, among others. Vlassopoulos develops an insightful analysis on how migration was constructed, in the context of environmental disturbances and then climate change, as a political issue – or, alternatively, as a consequence of climate change, or as a possible solution to issues raised by climate change. The chapter discusses the recent re-interpretation of climate migration within the loss and damage workstream in terms of institutional mandate and the difficulty of promoting the issue and the role for climate change institutions such as the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism without disempowering migration institutions.