Climate disasters displace more people than conflicts now

What is the News?

The “World Migration Report 2022” has been published.

More about the report:

It is a biennial report published by the “International Organization for Migration” (IOM) of the UN.

The report quoted the regular data collation by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

The 2022 report on global migration focuses on migration caused by climate change induced factors, like extreme disasters and weather events.

What are the findings of the report?

More people are now being displaced by disasters due to the changing climate compared to conflicts. It has reversed a historical trend. The data is provided just for displacements due to sudden onset disasters and displacement due to slow onset disasters and inter-country displacement are not included in it.

In 2020, 30.7 million new displacements were triggered by disasters in 145 countries and territories. The figure in 2020 has increased despite covid induced containment measures.

-Around 76% of the new displacement in the world was caused by disasters in 2020.

-The Philippines experienced the highest absolute number of new disaster displacements in 2020.

-Most of the new displacement is due to climate-related events: storms (most displacements), floods, extreme temperatures, and drought.

Projected displacements

According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, droughts could lead to the migration of 22 million more in Africa, 12 million in South America, and 10 million in Asia by 2059 (in comparison to the 2000-2015 period).

Source: This post is based on the article “Climate disasters displace more people than conflicts now” published in Down To Earth on 2nd December 2021.