SDH Captioned
Grades 10-12, College, Adults
Directed by François-Xavier Trégan
Produced by Michaël Sztanke
DVD Purchase $295, Rent $95
Rent $95
US Release Date: 2026
Copyright Date: 2025
DVD ISBN: 1-961192-56-X
Subjects
Anthropology
Asian Studies
Climate Change/Global Warming
Community
Environment
Environmental Ethics
Environmental Justice
Geography
Global Issues
Human Rights
International Studies
Latin American Studies
Law
Migration and Refugees
Oceans and Coasts
Pacific Studies
Social Justice
Sociology
Awards and Festivals
Festival du Film Vert
Global Health Film Days
As extreme weather threatens the lives of hundreds of millions of people, how can the world best respond?
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"[C]ompelling and exquisitely made...carefully presents the huge human and social challenges generated by climate change." Jacqueline Bhabha, Prof, Health & Human Rights, Harvard Univ |
[Note: Community screenings of CLIMATE REFUGEES: A Global Challenge can be booked at Bullfrog Communities.]
Already more than 30 million people flee their villages, regions or countries every year because of climate change. By 2050, it's estimated there will be between 200 million and 1 billion climate refugees. As extreme weather threatens the lives of hundreds of millions of people, how can the world best respond?
Faced with these migrations, the international community seems incapable of agreeing on the definition of a 'climate refugee' and suitable compensation for them. Currently climate refugees are not covered by the 1951 Refugee Convention.The specter of waves of unrestrained migration is brandished for populist purposes to justify the locking of borders.
But, in the absence of a global response, the countries and regions most affected by the climate change/migration problem are taking the initiative.
Climate Refugees: A Global Challenge explores these challenges through the prism of individual human stories and innovative initiatives in Asia, the Pacific and Latin America. In the long term, they could become models for change well beyond their borders.
Reviews
"Climate Refugees: A Global Challenge powerfully weaves stories of climate-induced displacement and loss with those of struggle for legal recognition and justice. Illuminating the realities of communities on the frontlines of climate disaster, this film will inspire audiences on how to be in solidarity and to take meaningful action."
Megan Carney, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Author, The Unending Hunger: Tracing Women and Food Insecurity Across Borders
"This is a sobering and yet hopeful account of climate change, displacement and resilience from the perspective of those who are feeling its most acute impacts. The film is unsparing in its depiction of the devastating impacts that rising seas, eroding lands, and drought-stricken fields are having on especially vulnerable populations - including indigenous and rural villagers. But this film is not about victimization and victimhood; instead, it shows the way that individuals, local communities, national strategies and even regional approaches to combating climate change can work, if we take action sooner rather than later."
Pablo S. Bose, Professor of Geography and Geosciences, Co-Director, Global and Regional Studies, University of Vermont, Author, Refugees in New Destinations and Small Cities: Resettlement in Vermont
"Climate Refugees: A Global Challenge takes viewers into the often-overlooked experiences of ordinary people in villages and coastal communities across world regions who mobilize socially to survive the devastation and displacement caused by climate change. The film shows that climate refugees are not merely victims, but active agents engaged in struggles for survival, often without state support."
Nestor Rodriguez, Professor of Sociology, University of Texas at Austin, Co-author, Deportation and Return in a Border-Restricted World
"Expounded directly by the protagonists, local victims and politicians, Climate Refugees: A Global Challenge opens the viewers' eyes to the current invisibility and lack of legal status of people forcibly displaced by climate change. The documentary film centers on the case studies of three countries, Bangladesh, Colombia, and Fiji, to expose the tragedy and provide possible solutions. The film is ultimately an urgent call to the international community to take legal and preventive action before it is too late."
Ignacio López-Calvo, Professor of Latin American Literature and Culture, University of California-Merced, Co-editor, Hydrohumanities: Water Discourse and Environmental Futures
"In Climate Refugees: A Global Challenge, the argument is simple but profound: People need rights as well as shelter. Through the personal stories of those in Bangladesh, Colombia, and Fiji, the film explores how the Global South is pioneering solutions to displacement - and asks what the Global North is doing to help. This is a timely investigation into how we can preserve not just lives, but the ancestral identities tied to the lands currently under threat."
Lisa Meierotto, Associate Professor of Global and Environmental Studies, Boise State University, Author, Immigration, Environment, and Security on the U.S.-Mexico Border
"Climate Refugees: A Global Challenge shows the urgent loss of land and culture in the worlds of those being displaced by climate impacts in their own words. These compelling stories are important to show the humanity behind this phenomenon."
Andrea C. Simonelli, Associate Professor of Political Science, Thrust 4 Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Energy and Environment, Virginia Commonwealth University
"Climate Refugees provides up-to-date information while emphasizing innovative strategies, community-led initiatives, and the disproportionate impacts of climate change in Bangladesh, Colombia, and the Pacific Islands. It further examines obstacles such as limited funding, inadequate public support, and substantial losses of both tangible and intangible resources. The film's inclusion of diverse perspectives make it a valuable resource for classroom discussions on formally recognizing affected individuals and communities, while upholding their integrity, rights, and self-determination."
Staci Martin, Assistant Professor of Practice, Child, Youth, and Family Studies, Portland State University
"This is a powerful film that shines a light on one of the most important issues of our day: climate justice. Through its comparison of climate-related displacement in three very different places - Bangladesh, Colombia, and Fiji - the film highlights the role that international human rights law can play in addressing the needs of climate refugees. A perfect film for students of climate change, environmental justice, human rights, and international humanitarian law."
Tom Perreault, Professor of Latin American Geography, Syracuse University, Co-editor, Water Justice