Reconceptualizing the Climate 'Refugee' in International Law: Prioritising an Ecofeminist and Decolonial Paradigm

我的研究项目批判性地探讨了国际法在解决气候“难民”保护方面的差距，那些因气候变化影响而被迫逃离家园的人，旨在提供另一种法律范式，以应对未来跨境气候引起的流动性。自2008年以来，每年平均有2250万人因气候相关事件而被迫流离失所（全球气候变化报告2018；联合国难民署2020）。如果不采取适当行动，这些数字估计还会上升，到2050年，由于气候因素，可能有超过10亿人在国际上流离失所（IEP, 2020），六个地区至少有2.16亿人在国内流离失所（世界银行浪潮报告，2021）。尽管出现了这种灾难性的情况，但正如第27次缔约方会议所重申的那样，各国继续无法实现国际气候目标。此外，尽管大量文献承认寻找法律回应的紧迫性（Atapattu, 2015; McAdam, 2012; Gemenne 2018），但目前的国际法律框架仍然不足以为气候“难民”提供保护。迄今为止，国际法律机构未能提供令人满意的回应（UNHRC， Teitiota诉新西兰，2020），国家移民政策继续忽视气候变化作为移民驱动因素（McLeman, 2020）。23我的研究认为，问题的核心在于当前国际法对气候流动关系的理解、概念化和处理方式。这反映了“知识的殖民性”（Mignolo, 2000），因为移民和气候变化法律研究的认识论基础使欧洲中心的愿景普遍化（Woldemariam, 2019; Collins; 2022; Sultana, 2022），并产生了一个认识层次（Adelman, 2015）。我的方法建立在“基于更广泛的知识来源的新规范叙事”（McLeman, 2014）的需求之上，因为主权、边界、后事实取向、划分移民/难民、人/自然、脆弱性/适应的二元思维等概念使西方范式永续存在，阻碍了对气候流离失所的整体回应。因此，我的研究通过采用非殖民化的观点（Sultana, 2022），并借鉴生态女性主义理论（Fineman, 2014; Harris, 2015; Shiva2014），以提供一种适合解决未来气候流离失所问题的替代法律范式，从而回应了重新定义气候变化-人类流动关系的必要性。因此，我的研究问题是：在当前的国际法律框架内，使气候“难民”陷入法律僵局的障碍是什么？优先考虑生态女权主义和非殖民化的观点如何有利于气候流动性关系的重新概念化？从生态女性主义和非殖民化的角度来看，哪些概念可以为气候和难民法的认识论基础提供信息？它们如何被合并？我采用了一种理论研究方法，特别强调土著文学（Suliman, 2019;Whyte, 2019）和南方的认识论，因为它们试图克服西方知识在解决气候相关问题方面的伦理、经济和认识论限制（Shiva, 2014）。通过重视多元认识论来重新构建气候“难民”，我的研究的独创性旨在挑战在分析气候流离失所方面占主导地位的以欧洲为中心的方法，并提出及时应对这一问题的新方法。通过与国际移民组织和欧盟庇护机构合作，我的研究结果将在国际和地区（欧洲）层面分享，以告知并影响政策议程。

My research project critically explores the gap in international law addressing the protection of climate'refugees', those forced to flee their homelands because of climate change impacts, with the aim ofoffering an alternative legal paradigm to grapple with future cross-border climate induced mobility. Since2008, an annual average of 22.5 million people has been forcibly displaced by climate related events(GRID 2018; UNHCR 2020). Without proper action, these figures are estimated to rise, with more than 1billion people potentially displaced internationally by 2050 due to climatic factors (IEP, 2020) and at least216 million people internally displaced across six regions (World Bank Groundswell Report, 2021).Despite this catastrophic scenario, States continue to miss international climate targets, as reiterated byCOP27. Moreover, while extensive literature acknowledges the urgency of finding legal responses(Atapattu, 2015; McAdam, 2012; Gemenne 2018), the current international legal framework remains illequippedto provide protection for climate 'refugees'. International legal institutions have failed toprovide a satisfactory response to date (UNHRC, Teitiota v. New Zealand, 2020) and national migrationpolicies continue to overlook climate change as a migration driver (McLeman, 2020).7 / 23My research argues that the heart of the problem is embedded in the way the climate-mobility nexus isunderstood, conceptualized and addressed under current international law. This reflects a 'coloniality ofknowledge' (Mignolo, 2000), as the epistemological foundations of migration and climate change legalstudies universalize a Eurocentric vision (Woldemariam, 2019; Collins; 2022, Sultana, 2022), andgenerate an epistemic hierarchy (Adelman, 2015).My approach builds on the need for 'new normative narratives based on more expansive sources ofknowledge'(McLeman, 2014), as concepts such as sovereignty, borders, post-facto orientation, binarythinking dividing migrant/refugees, human/nature, vulnerability/adaptation perpetuate a Westernparadigm that hinders a holistic response to climate displacement. Thus, my research responds to thenecessity to reconceptualize the climate change-human mobility nexus by adopting decolonialperspectives (Sultana, 2022), and drawing on ecofeminist theories (Fineman, 2014; Harris, 2015; Shiva2014) to provide an alternative legal paradigm, suitable to resolve future climate displacement.Therefore, my research questions are:What are the obstacles within the current international legal framework leaving climate 'refugees' in alegal impasse?How can prioritising ecofeminist and decolonial perspectives benefit a reconceptualization of the climatemobilitynexus?Which concepts from ecofeminism and decolonial perspectives can inform the epistemologicalfoundation of climate and refugee law? How can they be incorporated?I adopt a doctrinal research method with a particular emphasis on indigenous literature (Suliman, 2019;Whyte, 2019) and epistemologies of the South, as they seek to overcome ethical, economic andepistemological limits of Western knowledge in solving climate-related issues (Shiva, 2014). By valuingplural epistemologies to reframe the climate 'refugee', the originality of my research intends to challengethe dominant Eurocentric approach in analysing climate displacement and propose new ways forward totimely respond to the issue. My findings will be shared at international and regional (European) level, bycollaborating with the International Organization for Migration and EU Agency for Asylum to inform andinfluence the policy agenda.