Climate Change, Global Migration, and Inequality

Anthropogenic climate change became a growing scientific and political concern worldwide. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was signed at the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit. The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997, established binding emissions-reduction commitments for developed countries, though the United States never ratified it, limiting its global reach. The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015 at COP21, established a global framework setting the goal of keeping warming well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels; the United States temporarily withdrew from the agreement under the Trump administration before rejoining under the Biden administration. Growing impacts have been documented, including extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss, while global movements such as Fridays for Future, led by activist Greta Thunberg, have driven greater public attention to the issue.