Bangladesh Is Asking Rich Countries to Accept a Legal Responsibility That Matches Their Emissions. Most Are Not Eager to Answer.

The 1951 Refugee Convention was written for a specific historical moment: populations fleeing political persecution and war in the aftermath of the Second World War. It was not written for floods, cyclones, droughts, or sea level rise. Its definition of a refugee — a person with a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or group membership — offers no legal foothold for people fleeing environmental conditions. That gap has existed for decades. Bangladesh is now trying to close it.

For Dhaka, this is not an abstract legal exercise. Approximately 17 percent of Bangladesh's land area sits less than one metre above sea level. The country averages twelve major floods per decade. The Brahmaputra-Ganges delta — among the most densely populated regions on Earth — is subsiding at rates that compound sea level rise. The government estimates that between 13 and 17 million Bangladeshis will need some form of relocation by 2050 under mid-range climate projections. That is not a distant scenario. The clock is running.

The draft convention proposes three layers of obligation. The first is registration: countries experiencing climate displacement would document affected individuals and certify the cause. The second is a burden-sharing fund, calculated as a percentage of each signatory's cumulative historical emissions, to finance resettlement infrastructure. The third — and the one that will encounter the hardest resistance — is a right of residence: registered climate-displaced individuals would have a legal right to apply for temporary or permanent residence in any signatory state, with specified timelines and limited grounds for refusal.

Several European governments have already signalled privately that a legally binding right of residence is politically untenable. The United States has not formally responded. Australia, which received the draft given its proximity to Pacific Island nations facing the same pressures, said it would "study the proposal carefully." That phrase does not suggest urgency.

The 47 recipient states were chosen deliberately: all G20 members, all major historical emitters, all Small Island Developing States. Bangladesh has asked for formal responses within sixty days and wants a negotiating conference in Dhaka in the fourth quarter of 2025.

"We did not cause this crisis," said Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud. "Our people bear the consequences of decisions made in capitals whose names they may not know. We are asking those capitals to accept a legal responsibility that matches their historical contribution. That is not a radical demand. That is arithmetic."