Although security narratives still portray climate change as an existential threat that will lead to “a mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale,” data shows that people affected by environmental disruptions rarely cross the border. Socio-economic inequalities experienced in sending countries and the lack of legal recognition of the so-called climate refugees do not facilitate the movement of these people, who mostly become Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Given the hardships in confronting places turning inhabitable, which strategies, tools, and capabilities should be enacted by individuals and communities on the front line of disasters? This contribution provides a toolkit for non-state actors (i.e. non-governmental organizations, civic associations, entities like the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and faith-based organizations) to strengthen their collective capabilities to resist and adapt to environmental degradation. The toolkit includes Community Change Strategies and resistant and resilient capabilities to be read in light of non-state actors’ functions play within the Paris Agreement. Suggested decolonial environmental justice practices are employed to meet IDPs’ needs in the context of climate change and disasters while seeking recognition for these emerging subjects of law.

Francesca Rosignoli
Universitat Rovira i Virgili

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ID Abstract: 98