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Abstract

Climate change is a fervently sought manifestation that has disproportionately impacted human rights. Amongst galore impediments, climate change has left an indelible mark on human mobility. The climate change-induced migrants, compelled to move beyond the borders, are caught in a double-edged sword. The foremost starts with the ‘’recognitional void” under the refugee law regime. At the outset of differential recognition, the scale of an apprehensive crisis is further questionable. However, acknowledging that no state can protect climate refugees nor address climate change alone, the need for responsibility sharing has been suggested as a sustainable contrivance in approach to the contemporary crisis. At this outset, this doctrinal paper explores the climate refugee crisis within the broad ambit of “global common concern” in International Law, drawing on lessons from Climate Change Laws. On studying the evolution of instruments that have echoed the principle of “responsibility sharing” as the alternative mitigating tool in this contemporary crisis, the paper studies its connections with the broader typologies of migration. Through the critical lens, the principle of “responsibility sharing” is assessed in its capacity to address the unique challenges posed by climate refugees. The analysis reflects environmental justice, racial and colonial legacies, while incorporating the legal gaps in the “responsibility sharing” framework. In the conflicting consequential critical analysis, the paper revisits the principle of “responsibility sharing” of climate refugees to examine whether the countries that are minor contributors to carbon footprints and on the brink of being submerged due to the atrocities of climate change have similar responsibilities as opposed to the highest contributors, or whether the responsibility sharing is metamorphosed into responsibility shifting.

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