Refugees on front lines of global climate crisis, warns UN
Al Jazeera
Climate hazards helping to double the number of displaced people to 120 million, UNHCR reports.
Climate change is helping to drive a rising refugee crisis, adding to the huge numbers already displaced by conflict, according to a United Nations report.
Three-quarters of the world’s forcibly displaced people live in countries heavily affected by climate hazards, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said in the document released on Tuesday.
The number of people fleeing conflict doubled to more than 120 million over the past decade, 90 million of them in countries with high-to-extreme exposure to climate-related hazards, it reported.
Half of displaced people are in locations affected by both conflict and serious climate hazards, such as Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Syria.
“For the world’s most vulnerable people, climate change is a harsh reality that profoundly affects their lives,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. “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.”
