Carbon Credits, Climate Citizenship and DREX IMIGRANTE: belonging beyond borders

When I talk about climate citizenship, I am thinking about a simple truth:

the atmosphere has no borders,
but our rights still do.

If the rain changes, the river dries or the sea rises,
my passport doesn’t protect my nervous system, my lungs or my children.

Today, millions of people are already moving because their biomes are collapsing –
storms, floods, droughts, heat waves, slow desertification.

Yet international law continues to treat most of them as:

• “economic migrants”,
  
  

• “illegals”,
  
  

• or cases to be managed by border security, not by climate justice.
  
  

With DREX CIDADÃO and DREX IMIGRANTE, I want to move the centre of gravity:

from seeing migrants as “risks”
to recognising them as holders of metabolic rights,
wherever they go.

The focus I want to light

Among all the technical debates about carbon markets and migration policy, I choose one focus:

freedom of movement must include freedom to take your metabolic rights with you.

If my biome forces me to move,
my daily right to exist cannot be left behind at the border.

DREX CIDADÃO and DREX IMIGRANTE are the instruments I imagine for this.

Climate displacement and the right to move

Climate change is already displacing communities on a massive scale:

• floods and storms that wipe out homes,
  
  

• heat waves that make work and school impossible,
  
  

• slow-onset disasters like sea-level rise and salinisation.
  
  

Human rights law has started to recognise that:

• people moving in the context of climate impacts cannot simply be pushed back
  to places where their lives and rights are at serious risk;
  
  

• the principle of non-refoulement – not returning people to danger –
  also applies to climate-related displacement.
  
  

But there is still a gap:

• climate-displaced people are often not recognised as refugees;
  
  

• their right to stay in safer places,
  and their right to a dignified life there,
  remain precarious.
  
  

I call this the border of metabolism:

you may cross the line on the map,
but your access to money, housing, health and education
can evaporate the moment you arrive.

DREX IMIGRANTE is my answer to this border.

What I propose: DREX CIDADÃO that travels, DREX IMIGRANTE that receives

In my vision:

1. DREX CIDADÃO travels with the person
   
   

• If you are a citizen of a country with DREX CIDADÃO,
  your daily metabolic right follows you wherever you go.
  
  

• You may be living temporarily in another country,
  but your DREX wallet keeps receiving your base of existence
  from your home central bank, anchored in your original biome.
  
  

2. DREX IMIGRANTE welcomes those who arrive
   
   

• If you arrive in my country – whether because of climate, war or poverty –
  you gain access to DREX IMIGRANTE,
  a metabolic currency issued by my central bank in coordination with others;
  
  

• this is not charity;
  it is a recognition that the right to life is planetary,
  even if institutions are still national.
  
  

3. International and climate-commercial compensation in the background
   
   

• Behind these individual flows, there is an architecture of
  climate and commercial compensation between states:
  
  

• countries whose historical emissions destroyed other biomes
  contribute more to global DREX IMIGRANTE funds;
  
  

• carbon credits and climate finance are re-oriented
  away from speculation and towards direct metabolic rights for displaced people;
  
  

• bilateral and regional agreements balance flows of people,
  money and carbon in a transparent, justice-based way.
  
  

From the point of view of the person:

“Wherever I go, my right to eat, sleep and exist arrives with me.”

From the point of view of states:

“If my emissions and trade patterns destabilise another biome,
I contribute to supporting its people wherever they must live.”

Why migrants need metabolic security: the brain under forced movement

Neuroscience and psychiatry leave no doubt:

• refugees and asylum seekers have much higher rates of
  post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety
  than host populations.
  
  

This is not only because of war or disaster, but also because of:

• the journey itself – crossings, violence, exploitation;
  
  

• uncertainty about legal status;
  
  

• lack of income, housing and basic security.
  
  

Biological markers tell the same story:

• recently arrived asylum seekers show elevated hair cortisol,
  a measure of chronic stress, compared to non-migrants;
  
  

• permanently settled immigrants, once they achieve stability,
  tend to show lower stress levels than the surrounding population.
  
  

In other words:

the nervous system of someone who has been forced to move
is often living in permanent alarm.

Studies on cash transfers and refugees add an important piece:

• multipurpose cash assistance for Syrian refugees in Lebanon
  improved food security, reduced debt and enhanced subjective well-being;
  
  

• meta-analyses show that economic transfers in low-income settings
  generally reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety in adults and children;
  
  

So we can say, without exaggeration:

guaranteed income is also a mental health intervention
for displaced people.

DREX IMIGRANTE uses this knowledge:

• it treats metabolic security not only as economic policy,
  but as neuro-protective care for people whose brains and bodies
  have already endured too much.
  
  

Carbon credits: from greenwashing to climate citizenship

Why bring carbon credits into this conversation?

Because today carbon markets often do the opposite of climate justice:

• many offset schemes fail to deliver real emission reductions
  due to over-crediting, double-counting and non-additional projects;
  
  

• some projects have been linked to land grabs and human rights violations,
  especially in the Global South;
  
  

• instead of financing real transformation,
  offsets often allow rich actors to keep emitting
  while poor communities bear the risk.
  
  

This is what many call climate colonialism:

carbon credits on paper,
dispossession and displacement on the ground.

In my proposal, we invert the logic:

• international climate finance and carbon revenues
  feed DREX IMIGRANTE funds, not speculative offsets;
  
  

• money flows directly to people whose biomes are damaged,
  giving them metabolic rights wherever they live –
  not just to intermediaries and brokers;
  
  

• climate citizenship means that if your home becomes uninhabitable
  because of global emissions,
  you gain a planetary claim to metabolic support,
  not just “sympathy” from the news.
  
  

This links climate justice with freedom of movement:

• you have the right not to be returned to danger;
  
  

• and you have the right not to starve in the place that receives you.
  
  

How DREX IMIGRANTE could work

Some design principles I imagine:

1. Universal access at arrival
   
   

• any person registered as climate-displaced, refugee or asylum seeker
  in a host country receives immediate access to a DREX IMIGRANTE wallet;
  
  

• no years of waiting; no dependence on charity.
  
  

2. Layered funding
   
   

• base funding from the host central bank,
  recognising the local obligation to guarantee life;
  
  

• additional layers from international climate funds
  and carbon-related revenues, based on historical emissions and current responsibility.
  
  

3. Non-debt and non-conditional
   
   

• DREX IMIGRANTE is not a loan;
  
  

• it is not conditioned on work or behaviour,
  beyond basic legal norms;
  
  

• the goal is stabilisation of metabolism,
  not policing of morality.
  
  

4. Pathways to full citizenship
   
   

• over time, as a person integrates,
  DREX IMIGRANTE can be converted into DREX CIDADÃO
  of the host country,
  reflecting a transition from guest to full member.
  
  

5. Coherence with local biomes
   
   

• flows of DREX IMIGRANTE are calibrated to avoid
  pushing host biomes beyond ecological limits;
  
  

• this is why climate-commercial compensation between states is crucial:
  rich, high-emitting countries must pay more to sustain these flows.
  
  

Draft constitutional article (in Spanish)

Artículo X – Cidadanía Climática y DREX IMIGRANTE

1. El Estado reconoce el derecho de toda persona desplazada por efectos directos o indirectos de la crisis climática, conflictos socioambientales o desastres ecológicos a solicitar protección en el territorio nacional, sin ser retornada a lugares donde su vida, integridad o derechos fundamentales se encuentren en riesgo.
   
   

2. Las personas protegidas en virtud del inciso anterior tendrán derecho a un flujo mínimo de moneda metabólica digital, denominada DREX IMIGRANTE, emitida por el Banco Central y financiada mediante aportes nacionales e internacionales de justicia climática, con el fin de garantizar condiciones básicas de existencia digna durante su permanencia en el país.
   
   

3. El DREX IMIGRANTE será no reembolsable y no generará endeudamiento para las personas beneficiarias. La ley establecerá mecanismos para su interoperabilidad con el DREX CIDADÃO y con otros medios de pago, así como criterios para su eventual conversión en DREX CIDADÃO cuando la persona adquiera residencia permanente o nacionalidad.
   
   

4. El Estado promoverá acuerdos regionales e internacionales para que los flujos de DREX IMIGRANTE se articulen con fondos de financiamiento climático, contribuciones de países con mayores responsabilidades históricas en emisiones y mecanismos de compensación comercial, asegurando que la protección de la vida de las personas desplazadas no implique sobrecargar a los biomas y comunidades de acogida.
   
   

5. Ninguna persona será discriminada, criminalizada o privada de acceso al DREX IMIGRANTE por su condición migratoria, origen étnico, nacionalidad, género, edad, orientación sexual, identidad de género, credo u otra condición personal, garantizándose que la libertad de circular y la ciudadanía climática se ejerzan con pleno respeto de los derechos humanos.
   
   

Suggested references (up to 8, with comments – ≥3 neuroscientific / psychological)

1. UNHCR (2021). “Climate Change, Displacement and Human Rights.”
   Explains how climate change is already driving displacement and outlines states’ human rights obligations, including non-refoulement and protection for climate-affected populations.
   
   

2. Bustos, C. (2023). “A Human Rights Approach to Climate-Induced Displacement.”
   Analyzes legal gaps and proposes a human rights framework for people displaced by climate impacts, supporting the idea of climate citizenship and protection beyond traditional refugee law.
   
   

3. Cheong, B. C. (2025). “The Paradox and Fallacy of Global Carbon Credits.” Climate and Energy Policy.
   Argues that global carbon markets have structural flaws that limit their effectiveness and can undermine climate justice, reinforcing the need to redirect finance to direct support like DREX IMIGRANTE.
   
   

4. Dell’Amico, A. (2024). “Human Rights Abuses from Carbon Credits.” NYU Environmental Law Journal.
   Documents cases where offset projects led to land dispossession and rights violations in the Global South, illustrating how current carbon schemes can deepen climate colonialism.
   
   

5. Javanbakht, A. (2022). “Biological Psychiatry in Displaced Populations: What We Know So Far.” Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.
   Reviews neurobiological effects of trauma and displacement on the brain and body, showing elevated risk of PTSD, depression and altered stress systems among refugees and asylum seekers.
   
   

6. Mewes, R. et al. (2017). “Elevated Hair Cortisol in Recently Fled Asylum Seekers.” Translational Psychiatry.
   Finds significantly higher hair cortisol concentrations in recently arrived asylum seekers, indicating chronic stress that can be mitigated by stable, safe conditions—exactly what DREX IMIGRANTE seeks to support.
   
   

7. Zimmerman, A. et al. (2021). “The Impact of Cash Transfers on Mental Health in Children and Young People.” BMJ Global Health.
   Meta-analysis showing that cash transfers tend to improve some mental health outcomes for children and adolescents, supporting unconditional income as a psychological as well as economic intervention.
   
   

8. Salti, N. et al. (2022). “The Impact of Cash Transfers on Syrian Refugees in Lebanon.” World Development.
   Evaluates multipurpose cash assistance for Syrian refugees, finding positive effects on food security, debt and well-being—evidence that stable transfers like DREX IMIGRANTE can stabilise lives under displacement.