Environmental Ethics

Volume 32, Issue 2, Summer 2010

Twenty Million Environmental Refugees and Counting
A Call for Recognition or a New Convention

For over two decades, the debate about whether legally to recognize environmental refugees as refugees has been ongoing. Because their numbers are growing, environmental refugees should be recognized as convention refugees or a new UN convention should be drafted to address their needs. A typology of the environmental refugee should be developed to make the term more concrete and useful.