Climate change is fuelling a growing refugee crisis, adding to the huge number of people already displaced by conflict, a United Nations report says.
Three-quarters of the world’s forcibly displaced people live in countries highly exposed to climate threats, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said in a document released on Tuesday.
The number of people fleeing conflict has doubled in the past decade to more than 120 million, 90 million of whom live in countries with high or extreme exposure to climate threats, the document said.
Half of those displaced are in places affected by both conflict and severe climate threats, such as Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Syria. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said:
For the world’s most vulnerable people, climate change is a harsh reality that profoundly affects their lives. The climate crisis is driving displacement in regions already hosting large numbers of people uprooted by conflict and insecurity, compounding their plight and leaving them with nowhere safe to go.
Some 700,000 people have been forced to flee war in Sudan by crossing the border into neighbouring Chad. That country has been hosting refugees for years, but it is highly vulnerable to climate change. Those who remain in Sudan are at risk of further displacement due to severe flooding, the report said.
More than 70 per cent of refugees from Myanmar are seeking asylum in Bangladesh, where cyclones and flooding are categorised as extreme. Grace Dorong, a climate activist and former refugee living in South Sudan, said:
In our region, where so many people have been displaced for so many years, we see the effects of climate change before our very eyes. I hope the voices of the people in this report help decision-makers to understand that if not addressed, forced displacement – and the multiplying effect of climate change – will get worse. But if they listen to us, we can be part of the solution, too.
The UN report was released at the COP29 climate meeting in Azerbaijan. Delegates from nearly 200 countries are meeting this week to discuss climate change, although major countries such as the US and China have not sent top-level delegations.
The climate summit opened on Monday amid fresh warnings that 2024 will break temperature records, adding spice to a heated debate over climate finance as poorer countries push to increase the $100 billion a year target set at the forum.
