United Nations Radio

United Nations and other aid agencies attending climate change talks in Bonn are calling for inclusion of humanitarian impacts of climate change in an agreement to be made in Copenhagen in December.

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The 18 organizations have written a letter to United Nations climate change chief, Yvo de Boer, stating their case.

They argue that the next agreement on climate change, which will succeed the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, has to take the humanitarian perspective into account.

Philippe Boncour, who is in charge of International Dialogue at the International Organization for Migration, says the problem is well known but the discussions have mainly concentrated on economic issues.

He recalls that back in 1990 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, issued a report which says the gravest effects of climate change might be on human mobility. He also cites another study unveiled on Monday.

"And that study demonstrates that only in 2008, 20 million people were displaced due to the effects of only a sudden onset climate hazards. That does not even take into account those people who have been forced or who have decided to move for the reasons of gradual of environmental degradation."

Philippe Boncour stresses the need to include issues of people who are forced to move as a result of climate change.

Donn Bobb, United Nations Radio

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