climate refugee

plural climate refugees

1. archaicA person who moves somewhere with a more pleasant or healthy climate.First known use 1980s
   1. archaicA person who is forced to flee their home due to anthropogenic climate change that made their region unliveable.

      Recognising the existential threat facing these communities, in November close neighbour Australia offered climate refugee visas to Pacific Islanders.

      2023 December 8, “COP28: Tuvalu negotiator travelled 8,000 miles to save her home”, in BBC News

      3 more examples

      His best friend, the nature writer Barry Lopez, died of prostate cancer that December, three months after a wildfire had burned parts of his home near the McKenzie River in Oregon, making him a climate refugee.

      2023 March 29, David Allen, The New York Times

      “Climate refugees” often wanted to stay in their own country to preserve their society and culture, according to research published by the New Zealand Association for Impact Assessment.

      2023 November 11, Nic Fildes, “Australia offers Tuvalu islanders resident visas to escape effects of global warming”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1

      Kalmus also noted that becoming a climate refugee is not as easy as simply making a choice to move out of a suddenly-uninhabitable location. Uprooting one's life is inherently difficult, and the current geopolitical climate is not exactly welcoming to would-be climate migrants.

      2024 April 15, Matthew Rozsa, Salon