Climate refugees are people who have to leave their habitats, immediately or in the near future, because of sudden or gradual alterations in their natural environment related to at least one of three impacts of climate change: sea-level rise, extreme weather events, and drought and water scarcity.
Many refugee emergencies develop in border areas that are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, due to their geographic location, general prevailing conditions (e.g., poverty, over‐population) or relative isolation from political decision‐making.
International law only recognizes a very small class of forced migrants as people whom other countries have an obligation to protect: ‘refugees’, ‘stateless persons’, and those eligible for complementary protection.
The international agencies responsible for managing current refugee issues, especially the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), as well as many national governments, however, remain highly reluctant to create such new norms, especially any new categories that would include references to climate or environmental refugees.
Climate refugees are not acknowledged as refugee in current convention in international society even if these people are 20 times more than conventional concept of refugees
While all shard the same interest in protecting the environment, richer countries had greater responsibilities including the need to transfer relevant technologies and provide other kinds of aide to developing countries.