Justice for Climate Refugees: what do we owe to communities displaced by climate change?

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Climate change poses the biggest political and ethical challenge for our shared future. With sea-level rise set to submerge several sovereign small island states, along with major cities from Jakarta to New York, we must now consider what is owed, and by whom, to those who are displaced by climate change. In particular, what is owed to communities whose entire land has been destroyed by sea-level rise, largely through no fault of their own. Island states such as Kiribati, Tuvalu, and French Polynesia are predicted to be almost entirely submerged within the coming century. So what does ethics tell us is owed to these communities by the international community, if indeed anything at all?I therefore propose to build upon and extend the work of my MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies dissertation. I hope that I will be able to undertake this thesis under the continued supervision of Professor Matthew Gibney, who has agreed to do so should I be admitted. This dissertation considered whether reparations are owed to climate refugees displaced by rising sea-levels. In my coming DPhil, I hope to extend the work of this thesis, looking at the question ofjustice for climate refugees, particularly for whole communities displaced by sea-level rise. This will primarily be a work of political theory and ethics, working at the intersection between philosophyand political science. I hope to discuss and answer questions such as:What are 'climate refugees'?Should they be given protection by UNHCR?Are communities of 'climate refugees' displaced by rising sea-levels owed compensation or eparation for this loss?Who owes compensation or reparation to climate refugees?Is the policy of island building a morally acceptable answer to the problem of climate displacement?What alternative policies - both extant and hypothetical - might provide morally acceptable answers to the problem of climate displacement?"