Climate Refugees
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What’s Alarming
It is estimated that during 2017, 18 million people across the globe were forcibly displaced within their own countries due to disasters such as floods, storms, drought as well as other events such as wildfires. All of these disasters are made worse by the changing climate.
“Research indicates that the Earth’s climate is changing at a rate that has exceeded most scientific forecasts. Some families and communities have already started to suffer from disasters and the consequences of climate change, which has forced them to leave their homes in search of a new beginning. [The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] recognizes that the consequences of climate change are extremely serious, including for refugees and other people of concern. The 2018 UN Global Compact on Refugees ‘…recognizes that climate, environmental degradation and natural disasters increasingly interact with the drivers of refugee movements’.”*
During the monsoon driven floods in Pakistan (Summer 2022), an estimated 33 million people were displaced. Climate change was believed to have caused an increased intensity in the storms, and record-breaking heat a few months earlier also contributed to the devastating impacts as Pakistan’s glaciers experienced melting from the heat.
*UN Refugee Agency
