Climate Mobility Policy Responses for Foreign Affairs Ministries to Engage with Free Movement Blocs

This is the fifth in a five part series of ministry-focused briefs setting out rights-based, country-agnostic recommendations on climate mobility that governments can act on now.  To view the rest of the briefs, visit the overview.

WHY RESPOND TO CLIMATE MOBILITY?

Foreign Affairs Ministries are well placed to promote a wider climate mobility architecture through existing regional diplomatic and institutional engagement. These include integrating climate mobility into bilateral and regional diplomatic dialogues, supporting regional protocols and agreements on disaster displacement, temporary and circular mobility and planned relocation, strengthening regional early-warning, preparedness and anticipatory action mechanisms, advocating for climate mobility within climate finance and adaptation frameworks and facilitating coordination between countries of origin, transit and destination.

This policy brief focuses specifically on the potential of engaging with Free Movement Agreement (“FMAs”) blocs as one component of the broader Foreign Affairs toolkit to promote a rights-based response to climate mobility.

THE ROLE OF FREE MOVEMENT AGREEMENTS IN RESPONDING TO CLIMATE MOBILITY

Addressing climate mobility as a key part of global climate diplomacy is a growing part of Foreign Affairs’ mandates, particularly given that climate mobility tends to be predominantly internal and regional rather than across continents.[1] Leveraging and strengthening FMAs to accommodate climate mobility provides a strategic opportunity to bolster existing regional mechanisms to respond to climate mobility in a predictable, cooperative and rights-based manner, while avoiding the political debate around domestic migration.  For Foreign Ministries, supporting existing FMAs in regions facing climate mobility has a low political and financial cost that does not require the building of new political architecture.

While most FMAs were not intentionally designed with climate mobility in mind, FMAs are policy tools that have four key features that make them well suited to advance an orderly, rights-based approach to regional climate mobility challenges.

• First, FMAs determine eligibility based on nationality, rather than the reasons for why a person moves. FMAs establish a framework for nationals of participating States to enter, reside and access labour markets without requiring individual Governments to establish further eligibility This makes them particularly suited to address climate-related migration and displacement, where movement is difficult to evidence as ‘caused’ by climate events.
• Second, FMAs accommodate, within a single framework, the full spectrum of climate mobility for individuals as they enable temporary, circular or permanent migration. This means people can move in anticipation of, during, or after climate events – increasing both their choice and agency.
• Third, FMAs strengthen regional and global stability as climate mobility is absorbed within regional frameworks in a predictable, and largely rights-based manner. This prevents regional shocks from escalating into interregional flows. FMAs allow climate mobility to function as an adaptation strategy with portability of social rights, rather than permanent forced displacement.
• Fourth, FMAs generate mutual benefits for both origin and destination countries by embedding climate mobility within broader processes of regional economic integration, rather than treating it solely as a humanitarian response to crises.

KEY POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS: Successful interventions should focus on regions where climate mobility is already well-documented as occurring and support existing regional coordination mechanisms.

• ADDRESS ADMINISTRATIVE BARRIERS TO IMPLEMENTATION: Climate events often exacerbate key administrative challenges to the effective implementation of FMAs (e.g. documentation requirements). Technical support through development partners such as UNDP and IOM, or existing regional technical networks, such as the Latin American and Caribbean Council of Civil Registry, Identity and Vital Statistics (CLARCIEV), can address these barriers to effective implementation of FMAs. Effective interventions include (i) strengthening identity and civil registration systems, (ii) building capacity for the rapid reissuance of identity documents after climate disasters, (iii) supporting verification systems to accept alternative forms of identification and (iv) increasing the capacity of official border patrol forces to properly apply FMA provisions.
• LEVERAGE THE EXISTING CAPACITY OF REGIONAL OR INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS: FMAs are most effective as climate mobility tools when backed by a regional or international institution with the capacity to facilitate and drive focused regional cooperation on climate Foreign Affairs Ministries should propose and fund a dedicated climate mobility focal point within an existing regional secretariat, or fund an implementing partner such as IOM, to develop an expert working group of representatives from every State party to the FMA.
• SUPPORT INCORPORATION OF CLIMATE-SPECIFIC CLAUSES WHERE POLITICAL WILL EXISTS: Explicit climate clauses are not necessary per se but offer clear  benefits, such as: (i) providing a clear legal mandate to justify and fund necessary responses to climate events; (ii) promoting governance preparedness by clarifying responsibility, procedures and eligibility criteria, which ensures a more predictable and uniform response to the management of admission, stay and protection; (iii) embedding political acceptability and recognising the shared responsibility of participating states in reckoning with climate mobility.  Foreign ministries should only advocate for explicit climate clauses where there is political will for inclusion. Good examples include clauses explicitly providing for the non-suspension of rights in the event of sudden-onset natural disasters, such as   of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)’s Protocol on Free Movement of Persons for participating states in East Africa, which specifically provides for free movement “in anticipation of, during or in the aftermath of disaster.”
• PAIR WITH SUPPORT TO SENDING AND RECEIVING COMMUNITIES ON ABSORPTION AND ADAPTATION: Foreign Affairs ministries’ support for FMAs as climate mobility tools must be paired with accompanying resourcing on absorption and adaptation. This includes partnering with development aid arms to invest in (i) infrastructure to accommodate projected mobility needs, and (ii) adaptation so that individuals have the choice to remain in place. This approach ensures that climate mobility responses centre on providing individuals with the choice to stay in place or to move.
• PAVING ACCESS TO EXISTING CLIMATE FINANCE ARCHITECTURE: In addition to providing and/or facilitating direct bilateral financial and technical assistance, Foreign Affairs ministries play a crucial role in advocating for the inclusion of climate mobility in existing climate finance architecture, such as the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund and the Loss and Damage Fund. To date, finance for climate mobility support has been bilateral and ad hoc.  Foreign Affairs ministries can advance diplomatic efforts to establish a dedicated climate mobility finance vertical or portfolio within the existing climate finance architecture.  This should be paired with supporting regional FMA blocs to make effective funding proposals to unlock coordinated investment on climate mobility.

IMMEDIATE NEXT STEPS:

• Audit current engagement with FMA blocs to see if there is regional political will for including climate mobility-specific provisions.
• Assess whether existing engagement with certain FMA blocs can be bolstered by facilitating access to multinational climate finance architecture.