Task Force on Displacement – a two-year workplan

July 8, 2019
Events, Press Releases

Geneva, Switzerland, 1-2 July 2019 – Members of the Task Force on Displacement (TFD), including UNFCCC Executive Committee members from a number of regionally diverse countries, international organizations, a civil society group and the PDD, met to finalise a set of activities and a workplan that would lead to the delivery of their new mandate for the next two years.

At the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) in Paris in 2015, the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (WIM) was mandated to establish the TFD. As displacement is often recognized as the “human face” of climate change, the TFD was tasked with recommending integrated approaches to avert, minimize and address displacement related to the adverse impacts of climate change. In the COP 21 decision, the TFD’s mandate specified that the group is to complement, draw on and involve existing bodies, organizations, expert groups and expert bodies outside of the convention to develop recommendations for integrated approaches to avert, minimize and address displacement related to the adverse impacts of climate change.

After three years, the TFD presented its recommendations to the COP 24, in Katowice (Poland) in 2018. The COP welcomed the recommendations from the report of the TFD and its comprehensive assessment of broader issues of displacement related to climate change. The COP also welcomed the decision of the Executive Committee (Excom) to extend the mandate of the TFD. As per its new mandate, the TFD is to help execute the work of the Excom, in an advisory role, in guiding the implementation of the Warsaw International Mechanism, as appropriate, as part of the 5 year rolling workplan of the Excom strategic workstream d) “enhanced cooperation and facilitation in relation to human mobility, including migration, displacement and planned relocation”, and report to the Excom.

Find more information about the Task Force on the UNFCCC website.