The interface between climate and society demonstrates the increasing complexity of human dimensions of global environmental change. Despite some levels of disagreements on anthropogenic causes of climate change, people around the world are facing various climate stresses, such as sea level rise, increased intensity and frequency of tropical cyclones, droughts, rainfall variability. People in vulnerable geographical regions are generally most exposed to adverse climate impacts. Many of them are forced to take the decision to leave their places of residence and migrate somewhere else as their responses to climate change impacts. Often this process of mobility is difficult because of tremendous social, economic, political, cultural, and emotional costs.
Climate migration thus requires social, political, and economic responses to ensure justice and the rights of displaced populations. Mayer’s The Concept of Climate Migration: Advocacy and Its Prospects is a timely intellectual contribution to the discussion of climate migration. The author provides interdisciplinary insights into the prospects of various political narratives on climate migration and the possibility for renewed global governance on this issue.
Even though climate–induced migration is not an entirely new phenomenon in many parts of the world, major gaps remain in knowledge, policy, and governance. This book provides what it refers to as “narratives—different framings for governance on climate migration—and assesses their prospects and relevance. Mayer argues that although such narratives might influence global governance, those narratives might not necessarily achieve intended targets. Despite the urgency, climate migration is likely to lead to repressive policies against migration. In some parts of the Global North, many people and politicians perceive climate–induced migration from climate-affected regions as a national security threat.
Mayer stresses the importance of analyzing climate migration not in isolation but rather in broader social, political, and environmental contexts, since this is a complex issue and systems-level thinking is necessary to address the level of complexity. An interdisciplinary and integrated perspective can potentially help readers to understand and consider local and regional contexts, including the interactions, synergies, and tradeoffs among sub-components at multiple levels. In addition, the adverse consequences of climate change are often augmented by existing structural challenges such as poverty and marginalization. Therefore, in most cases poor and marginalized people are the major victims of climate change and subsequent migration. Mayer asks whether and how the political momentum created by climate migration can spur progressive change in global governance to support those in various challenging situations.
Based on these arguments, Mayer organizes the book in five major sections. Chapter 1 provides a thorough discussion of climate migration, highlighting the ways climate migration and global governance are closely interlinked. He argues that there is a lack of international cooperation for realizing the economic and social rights of the most marginalized and vulnerable populations who are exposed to adverse climate change impacts. Mayer also points out the disproportionate and unfulfilled responsibility of greenhouse gas emitters to the global community. The subsequent chapters each highlight the prospects of one of specific narratives Mayer has identified related to climate migration: the humanitarian narrative, the migration narrative, the responsibility narrative, and pragmatic narratives.
In Chapter 2, the humanitarian narrative is framed by arguments related to human rights, global justice, and the limits of humanitarian reason. Mayer stresses the importance of not imposing further (humanitarian) obligations on states whose response capacities to climate migration are already compromised because of impending adverse climate impacts. In the following chapter, the migration narrative suggests that forced human mobility under climate change circumstances should be perceived as a social phenomenon, and the vulnerability of migrants should be addressed through adequate measures of social protection and the rights of migrants. But the rise of political narratives against refugee protection more generally raises the question of how much can be accomplished at the national or international level. Mayer therefore rightly highlights the importance of global governance and international cooperation at both a national and cross-national scale. Chapter 3, which talks about the responsibility narrative, is framed with the classic example of who is most responsible for the rapid change in global climate systems, since now it is widely accepted that not all people, societies, or countries are equally responsible for the anthropogenic causes of climate change. In most cases, impacted people, who bear the largest burden of climate change impacts and themselves are climate migrants in most cases, are least responsible for any climate-related impacts. In this chapter, Mayer asks how these aspects of responsibility should translate to the sharing of responsibility for climate migrants on the ground.
The final chapter, the pragmatic narratives, suggests that both human rights protection and climate change responsibility can be realized through an alternative construction of states’ interests under complex and dynamic world system. Global governance is a complex process. Many factors, including interdependence, interrelations, and mutual interests, can influence the overall outcomes. There is no straightforward global governance framework that can address climate challenges in a more coherent manner. At the end, Mayer also echoes a similar sentiment, saying, “the conclusions remain abstract in nature” (p. 301).
The Concept of Climate Migration: Advocacy and Its Prospects provides a rich synthetic analysis from multiple disciplines, ranging from international law and international relations to some elements of argument studies and psychology. Interdisciplinarity perspectives presented here provide diverse political arguments about the concept of climate migration and help readers to understand the complexity of global governance on climate migration issues. Even though readers might not always get straightforward answers or directions, Mayer gives a useful overview of one of the most pressing challenges of our time—climate migration—an issue that demands nuanced understanding and requires coordinated efforts for possible solutions. The book sheds light on broader questions about the evolving role of global governance in the twenty-first century, and should be of interest to academics and policymakers whose research includes climate change, climate migration, international relations, and global governance.