BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) – A "conspiracy of silence" is stifling debate over the future of people who become displaced through climate change, a top UN official for refugees says.

In an interview with AFP at the UN climate talks in Barcelona, Jean-Francois Durieux, in charge of climate change at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said the question "remains taboo."


Under 1951 UN statutes, the term "refugee" applies specifically to a victim of violence or persecution, who is then entitled to help and asylum in other countries.

But no such status exists for people who are forced from their home by drought, flood, storms and rising sea levels unleashed by man-made global warming.

"There's a conspiracy of silence at the moment," Durieux said.