Why Aren’t Refugees at the Negotiating Table?
As the COP29 negotiations enter overtime in Baku, Azerbaijan, 50,000 people have engaged in debates over the future of our planet. This year’s meeting, informally deemed the “finance COP,” has focused on how to deliver the necessary funding for countries to respond to the global climate emergency—through mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage efforts—and just how much is considered the necessary amount for these efforts.
Climate justice advocates are disappointed with the progress of negotiations, with Parties unable to reach consensus on many items, leaving them to be taken up at the Subsidiary Body meetings in June 2025. For those issues that did progress to draft texts released by the Azerbaijan Presidency today, including the New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) and Global Goal on Adaptation, the proposed terms are wholly inadequate to meet the demands of the climate emergency. They also fail to recognize the obligations of countries in the Global North—those that have caused the climate crisis through their emissions—to those in the Global South already facing the worst effects from it.
For example, the current NCQG draft text is absurdly insufficient to meet the scale necessary of resources owed to countries facing the consequences of climate change. This draft has also excised provisions for loss and damage, the pillar of climate action that provides funding to those already facing the impacts of climate change.
To truly succeed in achieving a just and equitable outcome, this financing must be available to those who are most affected by climate change already, which includes refugees and other displaced communities. Without direct financial support and resources, refugees are left vulnerable to the worst impacts of climate change.
Affected Communities Must Be at the Table
Negotiations are shaped by who sets the agenda and who is at the table—particularly at COPs, where decisions must be made by unanimous consensus of all Parties—and again this year, refugees have been excluded. Yet refugees and other displaced groups are at the forefront of many of the impacts of climate change. They are frequently exposed to crises such as extreme heat, flooding, and drought that affect their health, homes, and livelihoods. Restrictions on their freedom of movement, employment options, and political participation make them more vulnerable still, as these limitations reduce their ability to adapt.
Though it has become a cliché, it remains true: those closest to the problem are closest to the solutions. How can officials sitting in Washington, DC, know what is needed by communities in Uganda? Even within countries, how can those in Kampala know what is needed by those in Bidi Bidi Refugee Settlement, in Uganda’s far northwest corner? The knowledge of those living in displacement is a critical resource that often goes unrecognized in decision-making spaces like COP.
Two of the authors of this piece are currently living as refugees and are attending COP29 as part of Refugees International’s delegation. They have been in a tiny minority amidst a sea of government officials, UN representatives, journalists, civil society organizations, and lobbyists. Yet the decisions made there will affect the lives of millions of displaced people around the world, who are often the least equipped to respond and adapt to the effects of climate change.
Consider the daily life of a refugee in a camp that has been affected by climate change, experiencing a heatwave without access to electricity or a torrential downpour while living in a basic tent. For them, the COP29 conversation is more than just a policy debate; it is about their survival. The question is whether they will have access to water, shelter, and basic healthcare as temperatures rise and natural hazards become more frequent.
How can the international community respond to these challenges? Direct access to funding and technical assistance, inclusion in national policymaking by host governments, and participation in COP summits by refugee communities would all be positive next steps for COP’s negotiators to support.
Direct Access to Funding and Technical Assistance
The headline issue at this COP is the negotiation of the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance. Also discussed have been the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage’s (FRLD) access and operational modalities—who is able to access funding, accreditation regulations, governance of intermediaries, reporting requirements, triggers, and more.
The FRLD is designed to support communities already experiencing “loss and damage,” a far-reaching term describing the consequences of climate change to which communities cannot adapt. The FRLD’s Board has highlighted that “programmes for direct deployment of grants to subnational and local entities, including Indigenous Peoples, community-based organizations and other nongovernmental groups, will be crucial in addressing the need for easy and fast access to funds.”
Refugee-led organizations are already responding to the impacts of climate change in their communities. In pre-COP consultations, they highlighted to us their challenges in scaling their organizations, in accessing funding that is flexible and available for longer than three-six months, and in obtaining the information and resources necessary to continue building their organizational capacity. They have made clear their need for direct access to funding and technical assistance, all of which is intended to be provided to others under the new Fund for responding to Loss and Damage and Santiago Network. However, refugees must be able to access these resources on equal footing with others.
Inclusion by Host Governments
To effectively support refugee communities within their countries, governments must begin by conducting vulnerability and capacity assessments in partnership with refugee communities. They must inform refugee communities of the risks of climate change and include them in disaster early warning systems.
Governments must also support meaningful participation by refugees in all national mitigation and adaptation efforts and that funding for loss and damage from climate change reaches refugees and receiving communities alike. This can include the establishment of local adaptation plans that are inclusive of refugees’ specific needs.
And they must involve refugees in their preparatory consultations with civil society for COP negotiations and report back to them on the outcomes of COP and how refugee communities will be affected by that year’s decisions.
Participation in COP Summits
Finally, refugees should not only be consulted on policies that affect them but they should be given official status in the negotiations themselves. Governments should include refugees directly within their COP delegations, but refugees rarely are granted full political rights in host countries. A more powerful option would be direct participation by refugees in negotiations. This could be through the establishment of a migrants and refugees constituency within the COP process, which would support their engagement as observers, but also as an official refugee delegation.
While civil society is able to attend many negotiations, these representatives are the only ones permitted to speak during them. An official refugee delegation, much like the Refugee Olympic Team, would be a powerful signal that refugees deserve the full political rights enjoyed by all others whose countries represent them at the COP summits each year.
Refugees must have more than just a voice in the conversation; they must have the power to influence and shape the decisions that directly affect their lives. To truly have a say in the future of how we address climate change, refugees need not just a seat at the table but access to the microphones as well.
Jocelyn Perry is the senior advocate and program manager of the climate displacement program at Refugees International. Ayoo Irene Hellen is a fellow at Refugees International and is a South Sudanese refugee living in Uganda. Qiyamud Din Ikram is an alumni fellow at Refugees International and an Afghan refugee living in Germany.