The Australian government needs to focus on migration planning now before Pacific Island nation people are forced to flee their homes to avoid disaster, Professor Jane McAdam, Director of the International Refugee and Migration Law Project at the University of NSW, told AAP on Thursday.
International legal and policy experts are due to discuss issues around people displaced by climate change at a Sydney conference on Thursday and Friday.
The conference will hear from experts on two small Pacific Island nations, Tuvalu and Kiribati, which are experiencing climate change threats including coastal erosion, drought, increased tropical cyclones and king tides.
Climate change in itself may not force people to leave their homes, but "it might be the straw that breaks the camel's back", Prof McAdam said.
Australia had no planned response to climate change migration issues and its current response to Pacific Island nations tended to focus on aid, Prof McAdam said. Read the full report here.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald.
