Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) assessment she made of the potential effect of climate change on the displacement of people and (b) steps her Department is taking to prepare for future increases in refugees seeking safety in the UK in light of that issue.

Climate change is not recognised under the 1951 Refugee Convention and, therefore, cannot be used as a justification for requesting or granting international protection.

Evidence shows that climate extremes and environmental degradation are often amplifiers of other principal migration drivers (economic, social and political), but decisions to migrate are rarely mono-causal. As climate change increases its impact on migration it is imperative that efforts are redoubled to limit warming and to help vulnerable people to adapt to change. Climate change is a reality that requires greater and more coordinated adaptation and mitigation planning.