The URV’s Centre for Environmental Law Studies (CEDAT) has brought together a group whose aim is to address a legal loophole in this area

One approach to protecting people who have been forced to move due to the global environmental crisis is to create a new legal instrument in the form of an independent multilateral international treaty.

The so-called “Limoges Project” has been developed at the University of Limoges (France) under the leadership of Lecturer Michel Prieur,. This project has involved drafting and repeatedly revising a proposed version of such a convention.

This proposed international treaty recognises people who migrate for environmental and climate-related reasons, and aims to address the existing legal loophole regarding their protection, especially when they cross international borders. The goal is to bring together in a single, all-encompassing text the measures needed to improve the circumstances of those who migrate or are at risk of migrating due to both sudden or slow environmental and climatic events.

Throughout 2024, an international group of experts in international law, migration, climate change, and environmental law worked on updating the text to incorporate recent developments and to enrich it from different perspectives.

On January 16 and 17, the URV’s Centre for Environmental Law Studies brought together a small group of experts at the Faculty of Legal Sciences so they could review the draft proposal in detail. Participants in this meeting included Susana Borràs Pentinat (CEDAT-URV), Beatriz Felipe Pérez (CICrA Justícia Ambiental i CEDAT-URV), Rosalía Ibarra Sarlat (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), José Juste Ruiz (Universitat de València), Antoni Pigrau Solé (CEDAT-URV), Michel Prieur (Université de Limoges), Gonzalo Sozzo (Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Argentina), and Laura Vermote (Université Clermont Auvergne).

At the end of the two-day working session, the group approved an updated draft along with a work plan that included a consultation process with other entities in the first months of 2025, followed by steps for dissemination and political advocacy.

This draft text is a valuable contribution as it combines protection, assistance, and responsibility, incorporates the principles of displacement risk prevention and solidarity, and highlights the importance of the principle of common but different responsibilities.