In Search of Higher Ground

Identifying a Way Forward for Climate Refugees

Abstract

The world is on the precipice of a new era in political history. For the first time in 400 years there will soon be fewer states in the world, as even the most modest estimates of sea level rise place the first of the small island Developing states (siDs), along with its population of over 13,000, underwater within the next 20 years. These are not the only states and individuals at extreme risk of soon finding themselves forcibly displaced by climate change.