Climate change and its consequences: climate poverty and environmental refugees

...Climate change first received international attention at the Rio Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. As one of the Summit results, the ‘UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’ was adopted for action to “stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system".
The UNFCCC which entered into force on 21 March 1994, now has a near-universal membership of 195 parties. The Conference of Parties (COP) held an annual meeting to review the Convention’s implementation. The first COP took place in Berlin in 1995. And the upcoming 2015 Paris Climate Conference is the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21).

According to the UN report, climate change is happening faster and getting worse than ever. Warming temperatures, sea-level rises and unpredictable shifts in weather will have long-term impact on human survival and will have direct and immediate impact on the poor, making poverty reduction more difficult.

In February 2015, academics and experts held a meeting in Washington, D.C., to explore the relationships between climate change and poverty by examining three areas: the impact on poor people’s livelihood and well-being; the impact on the risk for non-poor individuals to fall into poverty; and the impact on the ability of poor people to escape poverty.

Climate poverty

Climate Poverty refers to the poverty caused by global climate change effects and disasters. This concept was raised for the first time by the international anti-poverty organization Oxfam in 2007. According to the World Health Organization, 300,000 people die of climate change each year. By 2050, an estimated 200 million people will become "climate refugees" according to a report titled “the right to live” released by Oxfam in May 2009.........http://english.cntv.cn/2015/11/29/ARTI1448780667311922.shtml
29/11/15