Preparing Australia for a potential surge in environmental migration

ABSTRACT

Projections for the number of people displaced by climate change globally are startling and vary from 100 million to 1 billion; however, a widely repeated prediction is for 200 million by the mid-twenty-first century. Although difficult to estimate, some proportion of these people will cross borders and end up in Global North countries. This paper offers a provocation on the implications for Australian cities. It reviews Australia’s significant strategic planning policies in light of a possible mid-future surge in environmental migrants and considers how such policies could better prepare Australian cities. The paper concludes that a National Urban Policy could strengthen strategic preparedness for environmental migration.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• climate change refugees
• climate migrants
• environmental migrants
• planning
• Australian cities

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council Discovery Project scheme [grant number: DP190101093].