“We must establish climate refugee status,” argues ecologist Marie Toussaint

“We must establish climate refugee status in Europe and across the world”, argues Thursday June 6 on franceinfo Marie Toussaint, head of the Ecologist list in the European elections. She details this measure, present in her program.

“Today we have climate change which is mainly caused by rich countries or by oil companies, very often Western countries, even if they are diversifying”, begins by specifying the MEP. Global warming which increases the occurrences and intensity of climatic hazards, which makes certain territories unlivable.

According to World Bank estimates, in 2050, the planet will have 216 million climate-displaced people; there have already been 8.7 million in 2022, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC). These persons “flee first to neighboring countries and therefore not everyone will arrive on European shores overnight”specifies Marie Toussaint, who continues: “We must be able to welcome those who no longer have a place to live.”

This climate refugee status would operate on the same model as the status of political refugee or asylum seeker: “In the Geneva Convention, we established a status and therefore procedures to study requests individually. It would be the same thing in the case of climate refugees,” she describes. But this status alone is not enough: “We first need to fight climate change,” insists Marie Toussaint.