ROME—Climate change and related extreme weather events have devastated the lives and livelihoods of tens of millions of most vulnerable people worldwide—by far exceeding the total of all the unfortunate and unjustifiable victims of all terrorist attacks combined.
However, the unstoppable climate crisis receives just a tiny fraction of mainstream media attention. See these dramatic facts.
“Every second, one person is displaced by disaster,” the Oslo-based Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) reports. “In 2015 only, more than 19.2 million people fled disasters in 113 countries. Disasters displace three to 10 times more people than conflict and war worldwide.”
As climate change continues, it will likely lead to more frequent and severe natural hazards; the impact will be heavy, warns this independent humanitarian organization providing aid and assistance to people forced to flee.
“On average, 26 million people are displaced by disasters, such as floods and storms every year. That’s one person forced to flee every second.”
“Climate change is our generation’s greatest challenge,” says Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the NRC, which counts with over 5,000 humanitarian workers across more than 25 countries.
The climate refugees and migrants add to the ongoing humanitarian emergency. “Not since World War II have more people needed our help,” warned the secretary general of the NRC Jan Egeland, who held the post of UN undersecretary general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief (2003 to 2006).
Egeland—who was one of the most active, outspoken participants in the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) in Istanbul in May—also said that the humanitarian sector is failing to protect civilians. “I hope that world leaders ask themselves if they can at least stop giving arms, giving money to those armed groups that are systematically violating the humanitarian law, and bombing hospitals and schools, abusing women and children,” he said to Inter Press Service (IPS) during the WHS.
For its part, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) forecasts 200 million environmental migrants by 2050, moving either within their countries or across borders, on a permanent or temporary basis. Many of them would be coastal population. On this, the United Nations Environment Programme warns that coastal populations are at particular risk, as a global rise in temperature of between 1.1 and 3.1 degrees Celsuis would increase the mean sea level by 0.36 to 0.73 meters by 2100, adversely impacting low-lying areas with submergence, flooding, erosion and saltwater intrusion.
In a recent interview with IPS Nairobi correspondent Manipadma Jena, the director general of the IOM, William Lacy Swing, said that coastal migration is starting already but it is very hard to be exact as there is no good data to be able to forecast accurately.
“We do not know. But it is clearly going to figure heavily in the future. And it’s going to happen both in the low-lying islands in the Pacific and the Caribbean, and in those countries where people build houses very close to the shore and have floods every year as in Bangladesh.”
“It is quite clear that we will have more and more conflicts over shortages of food and water that are going to be exacerbated by climate change,” Lacy Swing warned.
Political crises and natural disasters are the other major drivers of migration today, he told IPS.
Lacy Swing confirmed the fact that climate victims now add to record 60 million people who are fleeing war and persecution.
“We have never had so many complex and protracted humanitarian emergencies now happening simultaneously from West Africa all the way to Asia, with very few spots in between which do not have some issue. We have today 40 million forcibly displaced people and 20 million refugees, the greatest number of uprooted people since the Second World War.”
On July 25, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution approving an agreement to make the IOM part of the UN system.
Founded in the wake of the World War II to resettle refugees from Europe, OIM will celebrate its 65th anniversary in December this year.
“Migration is at the heart of the new global political landscape and its social and economic dynamics. At a time of growing levels of migration within and across borders, a closer legal and working relationship between the UN and IOM is needed more than ever,” said the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement welcoming the Assembly’s decision.
IOM, which assisted an estimated 20 million migrants in 2015, is an intergovernmental organization with more than 9,500 staff and 450 offices worldwide.
“We are living in a time of much tragedy and uncertainty. This agreement shows Member States’ commitment to more humane and orderly migration that benefits all, where we celebrate the human beings behind the numbers,” Lacy Swing said.
Through the agreement, the UN recognizes IOM as an “indispensable actor in the field of human mobility.” IOM added that this includes protection of migrants and displaced people in migration-affected communities, as well as in areas of refugee resettlement and voluntary returns, and incorporates migration in country development plans.
The agreement paves the way for the agreement to be signed by Ban and Lacy Swing at the UN Summit for refugees and migrants on September 19, which will bring together UN member states to address large movements of refugees and migrants for more humane and coordinated approach.
Image credits: AP/Bullit Marquez