This chapter continues the overview and analysis of the second chapter. The story is picked up at the close of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris negotiations, which, in the form of the decision of 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21), created a specific entity to work on the issue of migration and climate change and thus marked the beginning of a new era of policy making in this area (Nash, 2018b). This analysis covers the time period from 2015 until the end of 2018, when this entity – the Task Force on Displacement – presented its recommendations. Despite events from the UNFCCC both setting the scene for and closing this chapter, a marked difference from the first 15 episodes detailed in Chapter 2 is that the UNFCCC is much less the focus of policy making, with other policy fora also becoming important and actors that are new to the area creating new spaces for discussion.

Episode 16: Platform on Disaster Displacement – the Nansen Initiative mark two

After the launch of the Nansen Initiative's Protection Agenda in October 2015, there was a short break before the launch of the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD), the successor to the Nansen Initiative. The PDD was launched at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May 2016 and, similarly to the Nansen Initiative, has an architecture that is built up around strong state participation. This is particularly highlighted by the fact that the Chair and Vice-Chair of the PDD are states that perform these functions for a term of 1.5 years before the roles are taken up by other members of the PDD's Steering Group of states. The Chair role was held first by Germany, with Bangladesh performing the role of Vice- Chair. In January 2018, Bangladesh moved into the role of Chair, with France becoming Vice-Chair. In June 2019, France moved into the Chair position, with Fiji taking on the Vice-Chair role. Further members of the Steering Group are Australia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, the EU, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Mexico, Morocco, Norway, Philippines, Senegal and Switzerland (PDD, 2017). It is interesting to note that Norway and Switzerland, the two states that were behind the pledges that established the Nansen Initiative in 2012, both continue to be involved, although have not yet taken on a leadership role.